^  .  //.  oQ 


^  PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ^4f* 


Presented    by    \x-Ci^   .G  7"^.   &>  X~^rYA  ^"O 

bv  4211  .Hb  . 

Hoyt,  Arthur  Stephen,  18511 

1924. 
The  preacher;  his  person,  I 

message,  and  method      ! 


THE   PREACHER 


THE   MAG3MILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK   •    BOSTON   ■    CHICAGO 
ATLANTA   •    SAN   FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN   &   CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •    BOMBAY   •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


THE  PREACHER 

HIS  PERSON,  MESSAGE,  AND  METHOD 

A  BOOK   FOR   THE   CLASS-ROOM 

AND   STUDY  -;.  '•s-"^, 

(*     JUN  11  1909 


«^        "  VA-.  — -*-'^-  ...V 


ARTHUR   S.    HOYT 

PROFESSOR   OF   HOMILETICS    AND    SOCIOLOGY    IN    THE 

AUBURN    THEOLOGICAL    SEMINARY 

AUTHOR    OF    "THE    WORK    OF    PREACHING" 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

1909 

All  rights  reserved 


COPTBIGHT,    1909, 

By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  February,  1909. 


J.  S.  Gushing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


In  reverent  and  grateful  memory  of  the  Mother,  whose 
life  made  possible  and  desirable  the  work  of  the  preacher ; 
and  of  the  Wife,  whose  love  and  taste  ever  kept  from 
low  content. 


PREFACE 

No  apology  is  needed  in  publishing  a  new 
book  on  preaching.  As  long  as  the  pulpit 
shall  stand  as  the  chief  teacher  of  the  religious 
life,  young  men  will  need  to  be  taught  how  to 
receive  and  give  the  Word  of  God,  and  older 
men  will  welcome  whatever  promises  to  brighten 
their  ideal  and  to  renew  their  creative  impulse. 
The  only  question  is  the  worth  of  the  book: 
does  it  meet  the  need  of  the  present-day  pulpit  ? 
Will  it  help  men  to  a  message,  divine  in  its 
experience  and  in  its  fitness  to  living  issues  ? 

In  the  changed  atmosphere  of  modern  life,  it 
is  not  enough  for  the  preacher  to  say  the  things 
that  are  expected;  he  must  speak  the  truth 
that  has  found  him  and  so  will  find  other  men  ; 
and  therefore  the  lectures  place  emphasis  upon 
the  personal  element  in  preaching.  They  at- 
tempt to  portray  the  preacher  as  he  ought  to 
be  in  character  and  habit,  and  to  uncover  the 
sources  of  his  real  authority. 

Over  against  a  sensational  pulpit,  with  its 
worldly  standards  of  immediate  and  tabulated 
results,  is  placed  a  spiritual  service  tested  by 
spiritual    measures    and    motives.     Above   the 


viii  Preface 

superficial  sway  of  eloquence  is  exalted  an  in- 
structive pulpit  that  comes  from  the  growing 
knowledge  of  the  Gospel  and  of  life,  and  results 
in  a  stable,  balanced,  and  comprehensive  Chris- 
tianity. 

If  the  social  consciousness  of  the  age  is  to 
develop  a  finer  sense  of  individuality  and  so  a 
nobler  responsibility,  the  preacher  must  pre- 
sent a  Gospel  that  shall  arouse  and  train  the 
conscience,  and  inspire  and  direct  the  new  social 
forces  that  are  trying  to  realize  the  Kingdom  of 
God  on  earth. 

To  help  the  preacher  speak  with  authority, 
touch  the  conscience  and  form  the  moral  habits 
of  the  age,  and  make  his  work  educative  of  the 
abundant  life  is  the  purpose  of  the  book.  It  is 
sent  forth  with  the  earnest  desire  that  some- 
thing of  this  large  measure  may  be  attained. 

ARTHUR  S.  HOYT. 
November  26,  1908. 


CONTENTS 


PART  I 
THE   PERSON 

CHAPTER 

I.  The  Personality  of  the  Preacher 

II.  The  Enrichment  of  Personality  . 

III.  The  Physical  Life  of  the  Preacher  . 

IV.  The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher 
V.  The  Intellectual  Method  of  the 

Preacher    

VI.     The  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Preacher  . 
VII.    The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life     . 


FAGB 
1 

21 

39 
63 

87 
111 
135 


PAET   II 
THE  MESSAGE 

Vin.  The  Authority  of  the  Message 

IX.  A  Living  Message 

X.  The  Aim  of  the  Message 

XI.  The  Contents  of  the  Message 

Xn.     The  Social  Message 
ix 


163 
189 
207 
221 
237 


Contents 


PART   III 


THE   METHOD 

CHAPTER 

XIII.  Evangelistic  Preaching 

XIV.  Expository  Preaching     . 
XV.     Doctrinal  Preaching 

XVI.     Ethical  Sermons 
XVII.     The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech 


PAOB 

259 
279 
305 
:;25 
349 


PART   I 
THE  PERSON 


"  The  Christian  ministry  is  the  largest  field  for  the 
growth  of  a  human  soul  that  this  world  offers.  In  it  he 
who  is  faithful  must  go  on  learning  more  and  more 
forever. 

"  It  is  a  continual  climbing  which  opens  continually 
wider  prospects.  It  repeats  the  experience  of  Christ's 
disciples,  of  whom  their  Lord  was  always  making  larger 
men  and  then  giving  them  the  larger  truth  of  which 
their  enlarged  natures  had  become  capable." 

—  Phillips  Brooks. 


I 

THE  PERSONALITY  OF  THE  PREACHER 


OUTLINE 

Personality  in  all  work. 

Personality  has  special  value  in  Preaching. 

The  personal  quality  of  thought,  style,  and  speech. 
Here  a  reason  for  the  perpetuity  of  preaching. 
The  power  of  example  in  speech. 
Personality  has  a  peculiar  importance  in  Preaching  from  the 
Nature  of  the  Gospel. 
Truth    is    incarnate.     Personality    is    used    by    Christ    in 

extending  His  Kingdom. 
The  New  Testament  words  for  ministry  are  messenger  and 

witness. 
The  secret  of  the  Preacher  is  the  secret  of  life. 
The  truth  emphasized  by  Christ's  training  of  the  disciples. 
The  History  of  Preaching  shows  the  importance  of  the  Per- 
sonality of  the  Preacher. 
The  Personal  Qualities  that  make  the  Preacher. 

The  moral  and  spiritual  qualities  first :  sincere  faith,  moral 
earnestness,  human  sympathy,  courage,  and  hopefulness. 
Intellectual  and  physical  gifts. 
The  Sense  of  Vocation  and  its  effect  upon  the  Life  of  the 
Preacher. 

References : 

Phillips    Brooks.      "Lectures     on     Preaching." 

Lect.  1,  2. 
Behrends.      "Philosophy  of    Preaching."     Lect. 

3. 
Chadwick.     "The     Pastoral     Teaching     of      St. 

Paul."     Chap.  2,   3. 
Charles   Cuthbert   Hall.      "The   Ideal   Minister." 

The  Atlantic.     Oct.,  1907, 


THE  PERSONALITY  OF  THE  PREACHER 

The  person  of  the  preacher  is  the  Hfe  of  the 
sermon.  "  A  true  sermon  is  a  real  deed.  It  puts 
the  preacher's  personahty  into  an  act."  True 
preaching  is  not  only  the  expression  of  life,  but 
in  the  final  analysis  can  be  no  better  than  the 
life.  The  man  can  never  be  separated  from  his 
speech. 

In  this  respect  the  preacher,  though  he  is  pre- 
eminent, does  not  stand  alone.  The  person 
counts  in  every  work.  Work  is  life,  and  the 
value  of  the  work  depends  upon  the  amount  of 
life  put  into  it.  The  chief  value  in  any  effort  is 
the  effect  upon  the  worker.  All  our  efforts  are 
a  few  things  in  God's  sight,  and  His  approval 
depends  upon  the  quality  of  the  work,  the 
thought  and  conscience  and  purpose  put  into  it. 
God  always  has  more  regard  for  the  worker  than 
the  work. 

The  true  outcome  of  the  work,  then,  is  life, 
because  it  is  life  that  goes  into  it.  The  personal 
quality  of  the  work  gives  it  distinction  and 
3 


4  The  Personality  of  the  Preacher 

power,  whether  it  be  the  building  of  a  house, 
the  writing  of  a  book,  or  the  teaching  of  a  child. 

While  the  worker  counts  chiefly  in  all  work, 
it  is  easy  to  see  that  in  preaching  the  personality 
has  special  value. 

The  secret  and  charm  of  all  public  speech  is 
in  the  speaker.  It  lies  beyond  analysis,  in  the 
mystery  of  personality.  Both  what  he  says 
and  how  he  says  it  have  his  peculiar  flavor.  All 
genuine  speech  is  personal.  It  cannot  be  an 
imitation  —  the  echo  of  a  voice ;  it  must  be 
the  man  himself  who  speaks.  The  thought  is 
his  thought,  truth  that  has  flashed  upon  his 
soul,  that  has  sounded  the  depths  of  his  nature, 
that  has  been  inspiring  or  subduing  vision,  a 
conviction,  bending  his  whole  nature  to  alle- 
giance, a  passion  constraining  all  the  forces  of 
life  to  its  advocacy.  Every  message  has  the 
personal  quality  that  Paul  puts  into  "My 
Gospel."  The  personal  must  be  the  channel 
of  the  spiritual  and  the  moral.  It  is  so  in 
Christ ;  it  must  be  so  in  every  teacher  of  Christ. 

It  is  a  long-accepted  axiom  of  rhetoric  that 
the  "style  is  the  man."  Something  goes  into 
it  that  cannot  be  included  or  defined  by  the  laws 
of  writing:  the  subtle  infusion  of  life,  some 
word  or  image  that  mirrors  the  soul;  some 
relation  of  ideas  that  reveals  the  simple,  inevi- 
table truth,  as  in  the  case  of  John  Henry  New- 


The  Personality  of  the  Preacher  5 

man;  or  conveys  the  sense  of  the  mystery  and 
infinitude  of  Hfe,  as  in  some  of  the  writing  of 
Frederick  W.  Robertson;  the  sharp  definition  or 
suggestive  image  of  a  Parkhurst ;  the  simple  yet 
exhaustless  flow  of  a  Brooks;  the  great  vista, 
beyond  the  accurate  knowledge,  of  a  Bushnell. 

And  still  more  evidently  the  speaking  con- 
veys the  personality.  The  form,  the  face,  the 
voice,  the  manner,  —  even  without  marked 
peculiarities,  —  convey  the  qualities  of  the 
man.  They  are  not  the  mask,  but  the  channels 
for  the  impartation  of  life.  There  is  more  than 
the  physical  quality  to  the  voice.  Its  sounds 
are  pulses  of  the  soul.  The  word  must  be 
spoken  to  give  its  utmost  meaning  and  reach 
its  largest  power.  The  spoken  word  has  more 
of  life  than  the  written  word,  —  and  when  the 
voice  ceases,  something  of  the  charm  and  power 
are  gone.  Great  orators  that  have  swayed  mul- 
titudes by  the  "Golden  Mouth"  or  "Silver 
Tongue"  do  not  justify  their  name  in  the 
printed  page.  "That  voice  would  strangely 
stir  my  heart,  though  I  could  not  understand  a 
word  he  said,"  was  the  remark  of  a  keen  critic 
upon  a  speaker  of  magnetic  personality. 

Here  is  a  reason  for  the  perpetuity  of  preaching. 
Public  speech  may  change  its  form  and  at  times 
lose  something  of  its  proportion,  but  it  can  never 
change  its  mission  or  lose  its  power. 


6  The  Personality  of  the  Preacher 

The  printed  page  may  be  a  larger  educator, 
but  it  can  never  displace  the  pulpit.  While 
men  in  assemblies  are  peculiarly  receptive  and 
responsive  to  influence,  while  the  personal  ele- 
ment is  necessary  to  make  truth  clear  and  per- 
suasive, and  while  the  person  finds  its  completest 
expression  through  the  living  voice,  the  pulpit 
will  remain,  what  it  has  always  been,  the  chief 
spiritual  instructor  and  inspirer  of  men. 

There  is  a  still  deeper  truth  in  the  relation  of 
personality  to  speech.  In  speaking  there  is  the 
subtle  influence  of  example.  Paul  constantly 
appealed  to  the  witness  of  his  life.  The  example 
of  singleness  and  sacrifice  wings  the  message  of 
truth.  The  man  must  be  back  of  his  truth. 
He  must  live  the  truth,  or  give  the  impression 
that  he  lives  it,  if  his  speech  is  to  have  any  worth. 
The  finest  speech  —  men  will  have  none  of  it 
at  last  if  the  life  does  not  ring  true  to  the 
word.  "What  you  do  speaks  so  loud  that  I 
cannot  hear  what  you  say,"  is  the  oft-quoted 
wisdom  of  Emerson. 

The  nature  of  the  Gospel  gives  to  personality 
a  peculiar  importance  in  preaching.  The  Gos- 
pel is  an  Incarnation.  "The  Word  became  flesh 
and  dwelt  among  us,  and  we  beheld  His  glory, 
glory  as  of  the  only  begotten  from  the  Father, 
full  of  grace  and  truth."  Truth  is  not  an  ab- 
straction, it  is  concrete  and  personal.    There  is 


The  Personality  of  the  Preacher  7 

no  moral  and  spiritual  truth  apart  from  a  per- 
son. Christ  is  the  truth.  Redemption  is  "not 
a  truth,  nor  an  ideal,  not  an  institution,  with 
their  external  and  aesthetic  effect,  but  it  is  a  per- 
sonal act,  the  external  act  of  an  external  person, 
with  all  the  moral  effect  due  to  that."  ^ 

The  study  of  truth  in  the  Gospel  of  John 
brings  out  the  vital,  inseparable  relation  of 
truth  and  personality.  The  word  truth  is 
peculiar  to  John,  and  is  the  form  by  which  he 
conveys  the  strongest  impression  of  the  life  of 
Christ.  Nicodemus  talks  with  Christ  about 
truth.  But  Christ  at  once  turns  the  thought 
to  life, ; —  the  life  from  above  that  has  vision  and 
approval.  Truth  then  is  not  a  mere  fact  of 
knowledge,  a  conclusion  of  reason,  but  some- 
thing that  must  be  done,  a  principle  and  prac- 
tice of  the  life.  Again  Christ  speaks  of  the 
freedom  of  the  truth  that  comes  from  loving 
fellowship  with  Him.  Truth  is  but  idle  words 
unless  it  becomes  a  conviction  and  a  practice, 
unless  it  is  a  living,  renewing,  freeing  power. 

And  the  idea  of  truth  gets  its  final  and  fullest 
statement  in  the  prayer  with  which  Christ  lays 
bare  his  life  and  work  to  the  Father.  He  prays 
for  his  disciples,  "  Sanctify  them  in  the  truth  : 
Thy  word  is  truth.    As  Thou  didst  send  Me 

^  Forsyth,  "  Positive  Preaching  and  Modern  Mind," 
p.  65. 


8  The  Personality  of  the  Preacher 

into  the  world,  even  so  send  I  them  into  the 
world,  and  for  their  sakes  I  sanctify  Myself, 
that  they  themselves  also  may  be  sanctified  in 
truth."  The  word  of  God  is  a  life,  and  the  life 
is  to  make  men  to  live  as  the  Sons  of  God.  "  We 
know,"  says  Bishop  Brooks,  "that  truth  can- 
not mean  in  Him  merely  objective  verity,  it 
must  have  in  it  the  elements  of  character,  since 
the  leading  of  man  into  it  by  the  Divine  Son  is 
to  be  the  perfection  of  man's  life.  It  is  His 
own  character  through  which  alone  truth  can 
come  to  make  character  in  His  disciples." 

Christ's  method  of  extending  the  Kingdom  is 
the  personal  method.  The  two  words  in  the  New 
Testament  for  the  ministry  are  witness  and  mes- 
senger. The  preacher  is  a  sent  man,  with  a 
message  to  give  which  none  but  he  can  give. 
Nothing  is  clearer  in  the  teaching  of  Christ  and 
the  testimony  of  the  Early  Church.  "As  ye 
go,  preach,  saying,  '  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is 
at  hand.' "  ^  The  solemn  and  emphatic  charge 
as  Christ  leaves  the  little  company  —  His  last 
words  are  "to  preach  the  Gospel"  and  "make 
disciples  of  all  nations." 

The  men  whom  Christ  chose  and  sent  recog- 
nized that  preaching  was  their  chief  work  and 
that  they  had  a  distinct  message  which  had  been 
given  them  by  their  Master.    They  use  for  the 

1  Matt.  X.  7. 


The  Personality  of  the  Preacher  9 

most  part  echoes  and  reminiscences  of  Christ's 
own  words.  The  Acts  and  the  Epistles  are 
unmistakable  as  to  their  view  of  their  work. 
Soon  after  Pentecost  they  asked  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  deacons  in  order  to  be  free  to  devote 
themselves  to  what  they  considered  their  proper 
work, — "the  ministry  of  the  word  and  prayer."^ 

To  the  elders  of  Ephesus,  Paul  describes  his 
work  as  declaring,  teaching,  testifying:  "I 
hold  not  my  life  of  any  account,  as  dear  unto 
myself,  so  that  I  may  accomplish  my  course,  and 
the  ministry  which  I  received  from  the  Lord 
Jesus  to  testify  the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God."  ^ 

The  Epistles  are  full  of  the  same  thought.  In 
Romans,  Paul  speaks  of  himself  "as  separated 
unto  the  Gospel  of  God."^  In  First  Corinthians 
ministers  are  "  stewards  of  the  mysteries  of  God."* 
In  Second  Corinthians,  Paul  speaks  of  himself 
as  "  an  ambassador  of  Christ,  intrusted  with  the 
ministry  of  reconciliation,  and  beseeching  men 
in  Christ's  stead  to  be  reconciled  to  God."  ^  In 
Timothy  and  Titus,  he  is  a  preacher  and  a 
herald.  And  Paul's  impression  of  his  chief 
work  seems  no  more  distinct  and  binding  than 
that  of  the  other  apostles.  Evangelist,  prophet, 
teacher,  are  the  great  words  of  calling  in  the 
New  Testament.     All  the  leaders  of  the  early 

^  Acts  vi.  2-4.  2  Acts  xx.  24.  '  Rom.  i.  1-5. 

*  1  Cor.  iv.  1.  =  2  Cor.  v.  18-20. 


10  The  Personality  of  the  Preacher 

church  had  this  sense  of  caUing,  this  conviction 
of  message,  and  handed  it  down  unimpaired  to 
their  successors. 

But  the  other  word — witness — is  even  of  prior 
importance.  The  message  of  the  Apostles  was 
what  they  had  seen  and  heard, — what  they  had 
experienced  of  the  grace  of  God.  They  were  to 
be  witnesses,  speaking  of  their  knowledge  gained 
by  personal  association  with  Christ,  and  by  the 
light  thrown  on  that  knowledge  by  the  Holy 
Spirit.  "When  the  Comforter  is  come,  He 
shall  bear  witness  of  me,  and  ye  also  bear  wit- 
ness." ^  The  disciple  is  sent  as  Christ  was  sent. 
"In  Him  was  life,  and  the  life  was  the  hght  of 
men."  "  Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world."  Life  is 
always  first.  Light  is  simply  the  outcome  of 
life.  Until  men  know  the  truth,  experience  its 
power;  until  truth  becomes  assimilated,  trans- 
muted into  life,  men  cannot  become  the  effective 
messengers  of  truth.  "He  charged  them  not  to 
depart  from  Jerusalem,  but  to  wait  for  the  prom- 
ise of  the  Father."  "Ye  shall  receive  power 
when  the  Holy  Ghost  is  come  upon  you;  and 
ye  shall  be  my  witnesses  both  in  Jerusalem, 
and  in  all  Judea  and  Samaria,  and  unto  the 
uttermost  part  of  the  earth."  ^  Witness  and 
messenger  are  one  and  inseparable  in  the 
work  of  the  preacher.     Truth  spreads  as  life 

^  John  XV.  26.  *  Acts  i.  8. 


The  Personality  of  the  Preacher         11 

spreads.  The  law  for  the  increase  of  the 
Kingdom  is  the  personal  touch  of  a  vitalized 
person. 

The  secret  of  the  preacher  is  the  secret  of 
life,  —  the  abundant  life.  There  are  natural 
gifts  of  social  contact  and  public  teaching  that 
are  serviceable  to  the  ministry,  and  these  are  to 
be  trained  to  the  highest  efficiency;  but  these 
are  the  channels,  the  means,  not  the  source  or 
elements  of  power.  The  real  problem  of  preach-  ^ 
ing  is  the  problem  of  the  spiritual  life.  The 
great  question  for  us  is  to  be  and  not  to  do ;  to 
be  and  keep  ourselves  and  grow  in  vital  personal 
relation  to  Jesus  Christ.  We  cannot  doubt  this 
as  we  consider  our  Lord's  training  of  the  dis- 
ciples. His  personal  discourses,  the  profounder 
ones,  are  about  the  inner  life.  Think  how  He 
dwells  upon  it  at  the  last  supper !  They  must 
abide  in  Him,  if  they  are  to  do  anything  for  Him ; 
the  fruit  that  glorifies  the  Father  is  of  the  Spirit 
—  the  graces  of  character.  God's  plan  of  estab- 
lishing His  Kingdom  is  by  inspired  men,  —  the 
same  now  as  in  the  age  of  the  apostles;  "God 
possessed  men,"  as  was  said  of  Maurice. 

The  history  of  preaching  shows  the  importance 
of  the  personality  of  the  preacher. 

The  progress  of  Christianity  is  traced  by  the 
names  of  notable  men  who  have  proclaimed  its 
truths,  prophetic   personalities  who  dominated 


12  The  Personality  of  the  Preacher 

the  thought  and  Hfe  of  their  age.  They  spoke 
so  that  men  were  roused  from  a  low,  conventional 
religion  and  heard  the  voice  of  God  as  at  first. 
It  was  the  great  mind  and  heart,  —  the  sensi- 
tive, fearless  soul  that  caught  and  expressed  the 
larger  vision  of  God  and  His  Christ.  It  was 
the  man  that  spoke  and  the  man  that  made  the 
truth  effective.  The  message  has  passed  into 
the  heritage  of  the  church,  but  the  name  is  still 
a  watchword  and  inspiration  to  men. 

"They  are  the  dead  but  sceptred  kings 
That  rule  as  from  their  urns." 

The  average  pulpit  has  been  quickened  by 
these  inspiring  personalities,  enriched  by  even 
the  unconscious  influence  of  noble  lives.  There 
has  been  an  unfailing  supply  of  spiritual  leader- 
ship and  instruction.  Whatever  wrongs  the 
church  as  an  organization  may  have  committed, 
whatever  admixture  of  selfish  and  worldly  ele- 
ments has  entered  into  the  life  of  the  ministry, 
we  can  say  that  God  has  spoken  through  the 
pulpit  more  than  anywhere  else  in  the  world. 
And  though  all  the  teachings  of  the  ministry 
have  not  been  the  mind  of  Christ,  in  every  age 
the  essential  truth  has  been  spoken  and  fol- 
lowed. In  spite  of  the  failures  of  mistaken  men, 
or  the  sins  of  hirelings,  the  world  has  been  nobly 
served.     It  could  be  wished  that  the  choicest 


The  Personality  of  the  Preacher         13 

sons  would  ever  choose  this  hardest  and  highest 
work,  that  all  the  servants  of  the  church  were 
more  richly  endowed  with  natural  and  spiritual 
gifts.  But  the  line  of  noble  men  from  Christ  to 
our  own  day  has  never  been  broken.  "It  is 
an  unbroken  succession,  not  by  the  ordinations 
of  men,  nor  by  the  will  of  men,  but  by  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  is  a  holy  fellow- 
ship, a  glorious  association.  It  has  had  its 
spots.  All  have  been  men  of  like  passions  with 
us.  Some  entered  the  ministry  without  a  di- 
vine call ;  others  have  been  overborne  by  passion. 
Some  concerning  the  faith  have  made  shipwreck. 
Peter  denied  his  Master  and  Judas  betrayed  Him. 
Men  have  disgraced  themselves  and  brought  re- 
proach upon  the  office;  but  it  still  lives  and 
strengthens,  because  Christ  lives  with  it,  and 
has  determined  that  it  shall  stand.  'He  walks 
among  the  candlesticks  and  holds  the  stars  in 
his  right  hand.' "  ^  It  may  be  truly  said  that 
the  preacher's  life  is  the  life  of  his  preaching. 

Such  being  the  vital  relation  of  personality  to 
preaching,  the  question  is  inevitable  as  to  the  kind 
of  personality  for  the  preacher.  What  are  the 
personal  elements  that  go  to  make  the  preacher  ? 

The  moral  and  spiritual  qualities  of  the  man  are 
first.  With  these  great  gifts  men  of  humble 
minds    and   insignificant    presence   have    been 

*  Bishop  Simpson,  "Lectures  on  Preaching,"  p.  36. 


14  The  Personality  of  the  Preacher 

greatly  blessed,  and  without  them  the  most 
splendid  natural  endowment  has  been  but  a 
broken  reed. 

The  preacher  to-day  must  have  a  sincere 
faith.  "  I  believe,  therefore  I  speak"  has  always 
been  the  law  of  preaching.  It  has  never  been 
more  needful  than  in  our  age,  —  the  question- 
ing, groping,  stumbling  age,  that  says  with  so 
many  pathetic  voices:  "We  have  lost  the  way. 
Show  us  the  Father  and  it  sufficeth  us." 

The  preacher  has  no  reason  to  speak  unless 
he  has  found  some  truth  precious  and  is  willing 
to  stake  his  life  upon  it.  Guesses  at  truth  are 
powerless,  and  so  is  an  absolute,  transcendent 
creed  that  has  no  humanity  in  it.  It  is  not  a 
question  of  how  much  a  man  believes  but  how 
completely.  The  preacher  needs  a  personal 
trust  that  means  the  absolute  committal  of  his 
life.  This  is  the  moral  element  of  faith  insep- 
arable from  sincerity.  Mr.  Gilder  has  expressed 
it  in  strong  verse : 

"If  Jesus  Christ  is  a  man  — 
And  only  a  man  —  I  say 
That  of  all  mankind  I  cleave  to  Him, 
And  to  Him  will  I  cleave  alway. 

"  If  Jesus  Christ  is  a  God  — 
And  the  only  God  —  I  swear 
I  will  follow  Him  thro'  heaven  and  hell, 
The  earth,  the  sea,  and  the  air." 


The  Personality  of  the  Preacher  15 

The  preacher  needs  a  fine  ethical  sense,  a 
moral  earnestness  that  appUes  the  truth  to 
his  own  life  and  makes  the  man  a  missionary 
of  truth. 

There  is  an  inseparable  relation  between  a 
sensitive  conscience  and  a  clear  vision.  Paul's 
open  vision  and  masterful  conviction  were 
connected  with  his  moral  nature.  He  ever 
strove  to  have  a  conscience  void  of  offence 
towards  God  and  man,  and  so  there  was  no 
moral  blindness  that  obscured  and  perverted 
the  conclusions  of  the  intellect.  He  looked 
upon  the  Christ  with  "unveiled  face."  In 
spiritual  things  the  knowing  is  subtly  connected 
with  willing.  "Obedience  is  the  organ  of  spir- 
itual knowledge."  We  must  grow  into  many 
things.  We  know  as  we  do  and  we  know  that 
we  may  enter  into  larger  life. 

Moral  earnestness  is  not  only  the  condition  of 
knowledge,  but  the  basis  of  purpose  and  sus- 
tained enthusiasm  to  reach  men.  Possessed 
and  controlled  by  the  truth,  the  earnest  soul 
cannot  keep  it  in  silence.  To  be  right  oneself  is 
not  enough.  The  heart  is  stirred  at  sight  of 
the  world  given  over  to  the  worship  of  error. 
Truth  is  expansive  and  conquering.  It  must 
be  expressed  in  service  for  men.  It  makes  men 
witnesses,  living  epistles,  advocates,  mission- 
aries. 


16  The  Personality  of  the  Preacher 

"The  noble  hart,  that  harbours  vertuous  thought, 
And  is  with  child  of  glorious  great  intent. 
Can  never  rest,  untill  it  forth  have  brought 
The  eternall  brood  of  glorie  excellent." 

—  "Faerie  Queene." 

A  sympathetic  nature  should  be  the  gift  of  the 
preacher;  a  power  to  feel  with  men  and  touch 
the  cords  of  the  human  heart.  He  should  count 
life  the  most  interesting  thing  in  the  world  and 
be  able  to  love  the  individual  man  and  not  be 
governed  by  the  vague  sentiment  of  humanity. 
To  enter  into  the  experiences  of  another  life, 
to  read  noble  possibilities  behind  rough  faces 
and  hard  conditions,  gives  to  preaching  that 
humanity  which  is  its  most  attractive  and 
persuasive  quality.  "The  divinity  of  a  sermon 
is  in  proportion  to  its  humanity."  Such  a 
preacher  interprets  life  and  opens  the  heart  and 
presents  the  Gospel  as  the  divine  complement 
to  human  need.  ''The  more  perfectly  the 
knowing  faculty  and  the  loving  faculty  meet  in 
any  man,  the  more  that  man's  life  will  become 
a  transmitter  and  interpreter  of  truth  to  other 
men." 

The  preacher  needs  to  be  a  hrave  man  who 
can  face  men  and  danger  unflinchingly;  whose 
faculties  are  quickened  by  the  critical  nature  of 
opportunity;  who  loves  men  too  truly  ever  to 
be  afraid  of  them.     Such  a  man  is  bent  on 


The  Personality  of  the  Preacher  17 

mastery.  He  faces  men  with  sublime  indiffer- 
ence to  their  opinion,  and  yet  never  so  sensitive 
to  it.  The  very  difficulties  of  public  speech 
compel  the  discipline  that  conquers  and  call 
forth  the  qualities  of  leadership.  He  speaks 
the  truth  in  love,  but  he  speaks  the  truth  at 
any  cost.  He  is  able  to  espouse  an  unpopular 
but  righteous  cause.  Courage  is  the  superb 
asset  of  the  preacher.  Without  it  men  will  not 
long  respect  his  word. 

And  hopefulness  must  cast  its  light  over  the 
preacher's  word.  It  must  be  something  more 
than  a  bright  and  happy  spirit  that  refuses  to 
see  the  shadows.  It  must  be  born  of  a  faith 
that  fully  faces  the  disturbing  facts  of  life  and 
holds  fast  to  the  eternal  wisdom  and  goodness  — 
who  believes  that  "the  all-great  is  the  all-loving 
too."  An  unconquerable  optimism  is  the 
spirit  that  wins  and  helps  men;  a  spirit  that 
never  complains  or  despairs,  —  that  lives  in 
the  light  of  the  coming  victory.  The  preacher 
is  to  put  heart  into  men;  into  men  baffled 
and  beaten  by  evil  circumstances  and  the  evil 
self,  the  hope  of  renewed  and  triumphant 
manhood.  The  man  who  never  doubts  that 
clouds  will  break  has  the  power  of  inspiration 
and  leadership. 

There  are  intellectual  and  physical  gifts  that 
go  to  make  the  preacher.     The  best  powers  of 


18  The  Personality  of  the  Preacher 

mind  are  required  to  perceive  and  express 
spiritual  truth.  Especially  is  there  the  call  for 
the  power  of  clear  reasoning  and  the  gift  of 
imagination ;  the  power  that  is  able  to  sift  the 
true  from  the  false,  and  present  the  evidence 
in  convincing  form;  the  faculty  that  perceives 
beyond  the  common  horizon  and  is  fired  by  the 
vision,  and  is  able  to  portray  to  other  minds,  set 
forth  in  something  like  tangible  form,  the  crea- 
tive and  pictorial  power  of  imagination. 

Not  unimportant  are  the  physical  gifts  of 
strong  and  sound  body,  and  the  speaking  voice 
able  to  express  the  most  subtle  shades  of  thought 
and  feeling  and  lay  hold  of  the  inmost  self. 

Natural  gifts  are  great  helps,  but  they  do  not 
make  the  preacher.  The  spiritual  and  intellec- 
tual have  often  triumphed  over  the  physical.  A 
great  message  and  a  great  purpose  have  often 
made  common  men  instruments  of  power. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  convey  the  impression  that 
only  peculiar  natures  are  called  to  the  prophetic 
office.  There  has  been  too  much  of  the  sign- 
seeking  spirit  in  considering  the  call  to  the  pulpit. 
It  may  be  said  of  some  men  as  it  was  said  of 
Pascal,  "There  are  decisive  hours  in  which  a 
man  feels  the  germ  of  a  new  vocation  bursting 
forth  in  him:  a  world  all  at  once  opens  to  his 
mind;  and  seized  with  a  passion  imperious 
as  the  very  voice  of  God,  he  takes  upon  his 


The  Personality  of  the  Preacher  19 

conscience  the  engagement  to  pursue  the  work, 
which  is  henceforth  to  be  the  end  of  his  hfe." 

A  man  may  feel  grateful  if  he  have  such  an 
imperious  passion  moving  him  into  the  ministry. 
But  let  him  not  be  distrustful  and  wavering, 
only  the  more  humble  and  faithful,  if  his  feelings 
be  less  masterful  and  his  conviction  less  sure. 

The  pulpit  of  our  time  needs  a  lofty  ideal  and 
heart-searching.  Men  need  sooner  or  later  a 
profound  assurance  that  they  are  God's  chosen 
servants  and  that  God  is  speaking  through  them. 
Nothing  less  than  this  will  keep  a  man  in  spring 
and  joy  and  hope  amid  the  trying  necessities, 
the  strenuous  labors,  and  the  deferred  hopes  of 
the  years.  And  the  man  who  has  the  capacity 
for  the  pulpit,  and  by  his  devotion  to  the  highest 
things  makes  full  proof  of  his  ministry,  will  not 
be  long  without  the  inspirations,  the  heavenly 
sanctions,  of  his  calling. 

"The  times  need  strong,  earnest  men  who 
believe.  Such  men  can  win  a  hearing:  multi- 
tudes are  waiting  to  hear  them  speak.  But  the 
times  are  critical  times,  and  mere  pretension 
or  incapacity  stands  out  confessed  and  con- 
demned  as   never   before."  —  Rainsford. 


II 

THE  ENRICHMENT  OF  PERSONALITY 


OUTLINE 

The  Individuality  of  Men. 

The  blessing  to  the  pulpit  of  diversity  of  gifts.     The  dif- 
ference in  effectiveness  is  in  personality. 
The  Limitation  of  the  Individual  Life. 

The  lesson  of  experience.     Men  called  to  differing  service 
in  the   pulpit.     The   true   judgment   of   such   service. 
Each  man  must  be  true  to  himself.     The  false  con- 
ception of  spiritual  power. 
The  Nature  of  Personality. 

The  deepest  and  fullest  self.     Not  fixed  and  unchanging. 
The  resultant  of  what  we  have  received  and  done.     So 
personaUty    can    be    enriched.     Implied    in    Christian 
faith. 
Personality  should  be  enriched  in  Spiritual  Wisdom. 

Religious   truth   the    sphere   of   the   preacher.     Not    aca- 
demic, but  truth  in  life.     Spiritual  wisdom. 
Personality  should  be  enriched  in  Human  Sympathy. 
Lack  of  humanity  the  vice  of  professionalism. 
Natural  barriers  to  be  overcome. 

Increased  sympathy  and  increased  power  of  ministry.   The 
highest  influence  connected  with  breadth  of  interests. 
The  Conditions  of  Growth. 

Hunger  for  a  larger  life.     Openness  of  mind. 
Fidelity  to  the  daily  task.     Fellowship  with  Christ. 

References : 

King.     "Rational  Living."     Chap.  1. 

Tucker.     "The  Making  and   the  Unmaking  of 

the  Preacher."     Lect.  2,  3. 
Horton.     "Verbum  Dei."     Lect.  8. 


II 

THE  ENRICHMENT  OF  PERSONALITY 

The  art  of  living  is  the  greatest  of  all  arts. 
And  because  living  is  not  large  and  noble,  with 
wide  interests  and  high  thoughts,  the  influence 
of  the  pulpit,  however  devoted,  may  be  narrow 
and  feeble.  A  young  preacher,  sensitive  and 
aspiring,  shrinking  from  nothing  that  would 
make  his  ministry  more  effective,  in  comparing 
two  classes  of  men  in  the  ministry, — one  impres- 
sive, the  other  tiresome,  one  dealing  in  vital 
realities,  the  other  lacking  the  human  touch,  — 
asks  the  question:  "Does  all  this  come  back 
to  the  idea  of  personality?  And  if  it  does, 
and  if  we  stop  there  with  the  answer,  is  it 
not  rather  discouraging  to  the  average  man? 
especially  if  we  assume  —  as  is  so  often  done  — 
that  personality  is  something  that  a  man  is  bom 
with  and  cannot  help,  and  must  get  along  with 
the  best  he  can.  Is  there  no  road  by  which 
we  can  go  a  little  farther  back  and  discover, 
that  though  all  may  not  be  equally  effective  or 
impressive  as  speakers,  still  there  is  possibility 
for  almost  limitless  growth?" 

23 


24  The  Enrichment  of  Personality 

The  first  thing  to  notice  is  the  individuality 
of  men.  There  are  various  gifts  in  the  church. 
The  diversity  of  gifts  is  one  of  the  distinctions 
and  blessings  of  the  modern  pulpit,  as  of  the 
Apostolic  church. 

Men  are  not  run  through  the  same  mould, 
but  have  freedom  to  develop  and  express  their 
peculiar  natures.  Modern  individualism  has 
its  sins  against  the  historic  unity  of  the  faith, 
against  the  social  body  of  the  church,  but  it 
has  contributed  much  to  the  moral  life  of  men 
and  to  the  variety  and  comprehensiveness  of 
the  pulpit.  The  difference  between  men,  in 
their  attractiveness  and  effectiveness,  is  in 
personality. 

In  personality  is  the  limitation  of  the  individ- 
ual life.  A  man  cannot  know  all  things  and 
he  cannot  do  all  things.  The  first  impression 
of  life  is  its  boundlessness.  But  physical  wea- 
riness and  mental  and  spiritual  struggle  bring 
the  wiser  mind.  The  strongest  impression  of 
the  years  is  that  they  bring  to  each  life  cer- 
tain definite  limits.  The  young  Melanchthon 
needs  but  tell  the  story  of  salvation  to  win  men, 
but  the  soberer  Melanchthon  knows  that  the  old 
Adam  is  too  much  for  the  young  Melanchthon. 
The  pathos  of  life  is  the  disproportion  between 
the  promise  and  the  reality.  The  vision  of  the 
brain  so  far  outnms  the  path  of  the  feet !    To 


The  Enrichment  of  Personality  25 

accept  the  fact  of  limited  powers,  to  have  a  wise 
estimate  of  self,  —  and  yet  never  to  brook  the 
continuance  of  weak-mindedness,  still  to  be 
striving  for  the  bright  reward,  though  the  world 
be  adverse  to  desert,  —  this  is  to  have  the 
triumph  of  the  Spirit. 

It  must  be  understood  that  men  are  called 
to  differing  service  in  the  pulpit.  To  judge  all 
men  by  the  same  standards  is  sheerest  folly. 
One  man  is  an  educator,  and  line  upon  line 
patiently  instincts  the  people  in  the  essential 
truth  of  the  Gospel.  Another  man  has  the 
power  of  bringing  knowledge  to  action.  One 
man  has  the  power  to  interpret  truth.  Another 
man  reads  the  heart  and  makes  its  chords  to 
vibrate.  It  is  a  wise  providence  over  the  church 
that  two  men  of  similar  gifts  are  rarely  in  suc- 
cession in  the  same  pulpit,  —  that  the  church 
may  have  a  more  symmetrical  development. 

We  cannot  tell  which  type  of  preacher  may  do 
the  more  important  service,  which  really  ad- 
vances the  Kingdom  of  God.  The  numerical 
estimates  of  a  preacher's  success,  so  common 
to-day,  are  largely  futile,  —  the  short-sighted 
vision  of  a  materialistic  spirit.  Does  a  great 
congregation  throng  the  church?  Then  the 
preacher  is  called  great.  Are  many  added  to  the 
church  roll?  Then  the  preacher  is  successful; 
he  has  the  true  Gospel  message.     Such  standards 


26  The  Enrichment  of  Personality 

are  a  subtle  and  fatal  materialism  that  make 
men  restless,  and  superficial,  and  unreal.  Many 
a  man  has  lost  his  finer  ideal,  dulled  his  con- 
science, and  failed  of  the  preacher  he  ought  to 
have  been,  that  he  might  score  a  success  on 
the  treasurer's  books  and  the  yearly  report  of 
his  church.  The  quiet,  country  minister  who 
trained  an  Alexander  Duff  into  the  faith  and 
purpose  of  a  missionary  may  have  done  more 
for  the  Kingdom  of  God  than  many  a  man  who 
has  had  thousands  hanging  on  his  word.  We 
need  a  spiritual  vision  of  work  as  well  as  of  the 
truth. 

Every  man  must  see  his  own  truth  and  do  his 
own  work,  be  true  to  himself  and  to  the  pattern 
in  the  mount.  No  man  can  live  in  compari- 
sons and  try  to  be  another  without  making  a 
sorry  failure  of  it. 

There  is  a  false  teaching  of  a  limitless  super- 
natural power  at  the  command  of  any  man 
willing  to  be  used.  If  we  set  out  our  empty 
vessels,  the  Lord  will  fill  them  for  His  use. 
But  the  wonder  is  not  in  making  a  new  vessel, 
but  in  keeping  it  full  of  the  spirit  of  life.  No 
absolute  surrender  to  God's  will,  no  complete 
emptying  of  self,  will  make  John  Smith  into  a 
Moody  or  Spurgeon  or  Phillips  Brooks.  The 
Spirit  of  God  never  violates  a  man's  nature. 
He  makes  a  better  man  and  a  larger  man.    He 


The  Enrichment  of  Personality  27 

is  the  great  empowering  force  of  life ;  but  His 
working  is  not  to  be  distinguished  from  a  man's 
own  spirit,  and  His  most  perfect  working  is  in 
completest  harmony  with  a  man's  best  self. 
An  unscriptural  and  irrational  pietism  may 
awaken  expectations  that  are  doomed  to  dis- 
appointment, and  divert  men  from  the  happy 
and  helpful  use  of  personality. 

But  what  is  personality  ?  It  is  an  unfathomed 
mystery,  but  some  things  are  clear.  It  is  a 
man's  deepest  and  fullest  self;  that  which  con- 
nects a  man  with  humanity,  yet  separates  him 
from  every  other  member  of  it,  —  the  fountain 
from  which  his  life  flows,  the  force  by  which  his 
work  is  done. 

But  a  man's  personality  is  not  a  fixed  and 
unchanging  element.  At  any  moment  it  is  the 
resultant  of  what  he  has  received  and  done. 
Take  such  an  example  as  the  late  Bishop  Phillips 
Brooks,  perhaps  the  richest  personality  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  modern  pulpit,  the  strongest  teacher 
of  the  fact  that  preaching  is  truth  through  per- 
sonality. He  received  his  inheritance  through 
generations  of  the  best  life  of  New  England: 
on  the  one  side  the  Brookses,  men  of  large 
affairs  and  practical  wisdom;  and  on  the  other 
the  Phillipses,  men  of  spiritual  vision  and  de- 
votion. He  was  trained  by  a  group  of  notable 
teachers,  and  at  a  time  great  with  interest  over 


28  The  Enrichment  of  Personality 

critical  problems  of  thought  and  life.  His 
achievement  was  familiarity  with  world-thought 
and  identification  with  the  widest  interests  of 
men.  He  had  a  life  of  growing  thought,  hu- 
manity, and  service.  Who  can  say  whether  he 
received  most  or  gained  most  ?  His  personality 
was  a  mysterious  gift,  —  the  five  talents,  but 
he  certainly  gained  other  five  talents. 

Life  is  not  a  house  in  which  we  gather  and  store 
apart  from  ourselves.  It  is  a  growth:  all  we 
do  transformed  into  what  we  are.  Man  has  the 
power  of  an  endless  growth. 

And  this  brings  us  to  the  heart  of  the  ques- 
tion as  to  the  use  of  personality.  There  is  a  way 
that  the  preacher  can  make  the  most  of  him- 
self. There  is  such  a  thing  as  the  enrichment 
of  personality. 

Christian  faith  implies  the  growth  of  per- 
sonality. Christianity  is  God's  way  of  making 
a  man,  the  largest  and  best  possible  man.  It 
is  a  poor  excuse  to  plead  our  nature  for  any 
defect  that  may  be  remedied,  any  weakness  that 
may  be  outgrown.  We  believe  in  the  power 
to  make  new  creatures.  The  Gospel  is  full  of 
commands  and  inspirations  to  growth.  Our 
duty  is  always  ahead  of  us,  not  measured  by 
what  we  are,  but  by  what  we  may  become  by 
the  spirit  of  obedience.  It  is  a  sin  to  be  a  dwarf 
when  a  man  might  be  a  giant. 


The  Enrichment  of  Personality  29 

In  what  way  shall  we  enrich  our  personality? 
In  what  way  shall  the  preacher  try  to  grow  ? 

The  preacher  should  aim  to  grow  especially  in 
spiritual  wisdom  and  in  human  stjmpathy. 

Christ's  prayer  for  the  disciples  is  to  be  the 
preacher's  desire  and  standard.  "  Sanctify  them 
in  the  truth."  He  is  to  feel  himself  a  dedicated 
spirit,  set  apart  in  the  truth.  The  word  of 
redemption  is  to  be  his  realm  of  pursuit,  of 
appropriation,  of  expression.  What  nature  is 
to  the  scientist  —  and  more  —  religious  truth  is 
to  be  to  the  preacher.  He  is  to  live  in  it  and  for 
it.  To  be  the  increasing  master  of  the  great 
subjects  of  religion  is  to  be  his  ambition,  his 
consecrated  purpose.  He  is  a  teacher  and  so 
should  know  these  things.  He  stands  as  an 
expert  in  the  Gospel  of  redemption,  and  his 
word  will  have  authority  as  the  people  believe  in 
the  sincerity  and  thoroughness  of  his  knowledge. 
Preaching  is  not  a  question  of  popular  eloquence, 
—  many  a  false  prophet  has  had  a  precocious 
gift  of  speech,  and  many  a  demagogue  has  cap- 
tured an  audience,  —  it  is  a  question  of  having 
a  word  of  God. 

For  deep  in  the  heart  of  the  age  is  the  re- 
ligious question,  which  no  other  interest, 
however  absorbing,  can  wholly  eradicate  or 
suppress.  It  comes  out  in  most  unexpected 
ways  and  places.     It  is  the  motive  of  many  a 


30  The  Enrichment  of  Personality 

modern  story.  It  comes  out  in  the  social  circle 
and  speaks  in  the  discussion  of  public  interests. 
Is  there  a  purpose  of  good  controlling  the  forces 
of  nature  and  of  human  life;  is  "the  all-great 
the  all-loving  too";  is  sin  misfortune  or  guilt, 
to  be  forgotten  or  to  be  forgiven ;  can  a  broken 
life  be  renewed;  is  there  an  immortal  life? 
The  man  who  can  throw  light  upon  these  ques- 
tions, who  can  speak  with  authority  upon  them, 
is  the  spiritual  teacher  of  men,  the  messenger 
of  God  to  them. 

This  knowledge  must  not  be  academic.  The 
pursuit  of  truth  for  its  own  sake  is  a  noble  ideal, 
but  it  must  always  be  remembered  that  re- 
ligious truth  differs  from  scientific  in  this :  that 
it  is  inseparable  from  life ;  it  can  be  known  and 
expressed  only  in  life.  The  subtlest  powers  of 
spiritual  perception  are  not  in  the  intellect, 
but  in  the  heart  and  conscience.  One  simple 
heart  cry  of  human  need  —  "What  shall  I  do ?" 
—  may  penetrate  farther  into  the  mystery  of 
Godliness  than  the  profoundest  reason.  The 
things  of  the  Spirit  are  spiritually  discerned. 
The  promise  is  that  when  the  heart  turns  to 
the  Lord,  the  veil  shall  be  removed. 

Every  realm  of  knowledge  has  its  own  con- 
ditions for  entrance,  the  key  that  unlocks  its 
treasures.  And  a  pure  heart,  the  single  eye 
that  chooses  and  serves  the  Kingdom  of  God  as 


Tlie  Enrichment  of  Personality  31 

the  supreme  good,  is  the  unalterable  law  of 
spiritual  knowledge.  We  are  to  welcome  every 
light  upon  the  history  of  the  Gospel,  test  the 
facts  of  redemption  by  every  proper  analysis; 
but  remember  that  the  life  that  we  bring  to 
this  examination  and  what  we  are  willing  to 
do  with  the  results  must  also  enter  into  any 
final  and  truthful  conclusion.  No  question  of 
religion  then  can  be  purely  academic.  It  is 
important  for  the  preacher  to  know  what  the 
universities  are  doing,  but  quite  as  important 
to  know  what  the  servants  of  Christ  are  doing 
in  the  heart  of  dense  cities  or  of  dark  continents, 
and  what  the  Gospel  can  do  to  transform  and 
develop  human  life. 

"  Let  knowledge  grow  from  more  to  more, 
But  more  of  reverence  in  us  dwell ; 
That  mind  and  soul  according  well, 
May  make  one  music  as  before, 
But  vaster." 

If  the  personality  of  the  preacher  is  to  be 
enriched,  knowledge  must  be  transformed  by 
experience  into  spiritual  wisdom.  It  must  help 
the  preacher  to  live  and  so  help  others  to  live. 
The  growth  must  be  in  "  the  knowledge  and  the 
grace  of  Christ,"  —  one  and  inseparable.  The 
outcome  must  be  a  gracious  life,  a  witness  of  the 
power  of  truth  and  so  a  messenger,  a  transmitter 
of  the  power  of  truth  to  other  lives. 


32  The  Enrichment  of  Personality 

And  the  preacher's  personahty  should  be  en- 
riched in  human  sympathy.  Growth  in  spiritual 
wisdom  implies  growth  in  love,  in  the  purpose 
of  good  to  other  lives.  With  the  vision  of  truth 
must  be  a  growing  sense  of  the  worth  of  man,  not 
a  vague  enthusiasm  for  humanity,  but  a  growing 
interest  in  the  individual  and  particular  man. 
It  is  easy  to  make  an  idolatry  of  books  and  ideas 
and  forget  and  deny  the  ties  of  humanity.  The 
man  cannot  grow  if  the  heart  shrivels.  We  may 
have  all  knowledge,  yet  without  love  we  are 
nothing.  The  vice  of  professionalism  is  its 
lack  of  genuine  humanity,  failure  to  put  oneself 
in  the  place  of  the  other  man  and  so  interpret 
and  minister  to  life.  The  best  growth  of  the 
preacher  is  in  human-heartedness. 

On  every  side  there  are  natural  and  artificial 
barriers  to  be  overcome.  The  preacher  often 
finds  himself  in  a  world  indifferent  or  hostile  to 
him  and  to  his  message.  Social  pride  ignores 
him  as  an  important  factor  in  life.  Selfishness, 
that  fears  that  its  gains  or  pleasures  may  be 
checked  by  his  message,  turns  its  back.  Men 
of  thought  and  men  of  affairs  may  relegate  him 
to  a  minor  place  in  the  life  of  the  world.  There 
are  men  that  are  antipathetic  and  forces  that 
oppose.  Many  a  minister  finds  himself  in  an 
ever  narrowing  world  of  interests  and  sympa- 
thies.    Instead   of   a   larger   humanity   and   a 


The  Enrichment  of  Personality  33 

larger  world  of  relations  and  influence,  he  finds 
himself  the  victim  of  his  own  tastes,  limited  by 
his  likes  and  dislikes,  shut  in  by  the  hard  lines 
of  his  own  failures  in  great-heartedness.  The 
preacher  grows  through  a  great  purpose  to  be 
a  brother  man.  So-called  intellectual  privilege 
may  be  simply  a  restriction  upon  manhood. 
There  can  be  no  gain  through  intellectual  ex- 
clusiveness.  Separation  from  men  may  make 
the  mind  itself  a  point  of  dull  stagnation. 

"  I  used  to  think,"  writes  Hawthorne,  "  I  could 
imagine  all  passions,  all  feelings,  and  states  of 
the  heart  and  mind,  but  how  little  did  I  know ! 
Indeed,  we  are  but  shadows;  we  are  not  en- 
dowed with  real  life;  and  all  that  seems  most 
real  about  us  is  but  the  thinnest  substance  of 
a  dream,  —  till  the  heart  be  touched.  That 
touch  creates  us  —  then  we  begin  to  be  — 
thereby  we  are  beings  of  reality,  and  inheritors 
of  eternity."  * 

The  enrichment  of  life  through  human  sym- 
pathies means  increasing  power  to  help.  The 
preacher  loves  men  better,  knows  men  better, 
serves  men  better.  The  larger  the  life,  the  more 
many-sided,  the  more  the  ways  by  which 
God's  voice  may  be  heard  and  that  message 
transmitted  to  other  lives. 

''  If  one  cares  to  exert  the  highest  influence,  — 

*  Woodberry,  "Hawthorne,"  p.  89. 


34  The  Enrichment  of  Personality 

not  merely  to  dominate  another's  choices,  — 
he  must  seek  such  an  influence  as  the  other  shall 
be  able  to  recognize  as  simply  the  demand  of 
his  own  sanest  and  best  self.  That  influence  is 
possible  only  to  the  man  who  has  sufficient 
breadth  of  interests  to  enter  into  another's  life 
with  understanding,  respect,  and  sympathy."  ^ 

There  are  tides  in  the  life  of  a  man.  Some 
powers  will  necessarily  decline.  But  the  heart 
need  never  dry  up.  It  should  be  a  perennial 
fountain  of  sweet  waters.  One  cannot  measure 
the  possible  growth  in  spiritual  life  and  influence. 

"The  best  is  yet  to  be, 
The  last  of  life,  for  which  the  first  was  made." 

To  be  a  great-heart,  full  of  tenderness  and 
compassion,  to  speak  out  of  a  genuine  interest 
and  fellow-feeling,  helps  one  to  stand  in  Christ's 
place  and  give  his  pleading,  beseeching,  recon- 
ciling word. 

Such  a  preacher  is  beautifully  described  by 
Jean  Ingelow  in  "Brothers  and  a  Sermon": 

"I  have  heard  many  speak,  but  this  one  man  — 
So  anxious  not  to  go  to  heaven  alone  — 
This  one  man  I  remember,  and  his  look, 
Till  twilight  overshadowed  him.     He  ceased, 
And  out  in  darkness  with  the  fisherfolk 
We  passed  and  stumbled  over  mounds  of  moss, 

*  King,  "Rational  Living,"  p.  11. 


The  Enrichment  of  Personality  35 

And  heard,  but  did  not  see  the  passing  beck. 
Oh,  graceless  heart,  would  that  it  could  regain 
From  the  dim  storehouse  of  sensations  past, 
The  impress  full  of  tender  awe,  that  night. 
Which  fell  on  me.     It  was  as  if  the  Christ 
Had  been  drawn  down  from  heaven  to  track  us  home, 
And  any  of  the  footsteps  following  us 
Might  have  been  His." 

How  shall  the  preacher  grow  in  the  direction 
that  has  been  indicated?  What  can  we  do  to 
enrich  our  personality  in  spiritual  wisdom  and 
human  sympathy?  The  first  condition  of 
growth  is  the  hunger  for  a  larger  life.  The 
growing  preacher  must  have  a  holy  discontent. 
Grateful  he  should  be  for  all  gifts  and  training, 
free  from  morbid  introspection  and  envious 
murmuring,  trusting  the  good  hand  of  the 
Father;  but  never  settling  down  into  a  low 
content.  No  man  has  a  right  to  say,  I  have 
done  my  best,  I  have  attained.  Paul  did  not  say 
that  after  thirty  years  of  great  life.  He  still 
forgot  that  which  was  behind  and  pressed  tow- 
ard the  mark.  The  preacher  often  suffers  from 
lack  of  honest  criticism.  He  suffers  from  aloof- 
ness, says  a  keen  critic  in  a  recent  Scribner's, 
and  so  from  lack  of  that  honest  criticism  which 
has  to  do  with  his  life  and  the  life  of  his  message. 
Petty  criticism  of  dress  and  manner  he  may 
sometimes  get,  but   rarely  that  thoroughgoing 


36  The  Enrichment  of  Personality 

judgment  of  character  and  message  that  has  to 
do  with  his  mission.  A  smug  self-satisfaction 
is  fatal  to  growth.  A  man  must  be  beaten  out 
of  all  self-conceit  with  himself  before  he  can  be 
largely  used  of  God.  Mr.  Hiram  Powers  was 
once  asked  by  a  friend,  "Mr.  Powers,  what  is 
your  best  work?"  "Oh !  the  one  I'm  going  to 
do  next,"  was  the  happy  answer  of  the  artist. 
And  that  is  the  true  spirit  of  the  Christian 
preacher.  The  old  failures  are  to  be  the  scars 
of  growth ;  the  old  successes  are  to  be  the  steps 
of  progress. 

Enlargement  of  life  is  to  be  gained  by  culti- 
vating openness  of  mind.  Some  men  simply 
stiffen  by  the  years. 

"They  are  the  comfortable  moles, 
Who  let  the  have  been  be 
The  limits  of  the  good  and  true." 

No  revealing  and  creative  experience  is  pos- 
sible for  them,  no  new  quickening.  They  have 
had  the  sensations  and  tested  the  discoveries 
and  settled  down  into  the  comfortable  seat  of 
tradition. 

"And  now  a  flower  is  just  a  flower: 
Man,  bird,  beast,  are  but  beast,  bird,  man,  — 
Simply  themselves,  uncinct  by  dower 
Of  dyes  which,  when  life's  day  began, 
Round  each  in  glory  ran." 


The  Enrichment  of  Personality  37 

There  is  the  inevitable  tendency  to  fixedness 
of  calUng.  Every  vocation  is  rightly  held  by 
its  great  traditions.  But  the  danger  is,  that 
what  we  have  done  becomes  the  ruts  of  our 
doing,  and  like  all  ruts,  they  narrow  as  they 
grow  deeper,  A  modern  English  novelist  de- 
scribes a  minister  with  "a  closed  mind,"  and 
the  process  is  so  unconscious,  it  goes  on  by  all 
the  laws  of  habit,  that  men  stand  in  a  new  world 
deaf  and  dumb  as  to  that  which  is  moulding  the 
habits  and  forming  the  ideals  of  multitudes  of 
their  fellow-men. 

There  must  be  flexibility  of  mind,  if  there  is 
to  be  growth ;  the  childlike  spirit  of  eager,  won- 
dering, reverent  search. 

Growth  is  gained  by  fidelity  to  the  daily  task. 
To  hold  one's  self  sacredly  to  the  hours  of  study, 
to  bend  mind  and  heart  to  it  as  the  supreme 
task;  to  maintain  the  quiet  of  the  soul,  un- 
broken by  the  rush  and  clamor  of  material 
things;  to  meditate  upon  life  and  truth  until 
the  way  shall  be  light  and  duty  clear;  to  have 
the  moments  of  chosen  and  conscious  fellowship 
with  God,  spirit  meeting  with  spirit;  to  prac- 
tise the  ways  of  increasing  friendship  and  ser- 
vice,— these  common  paths  of  duty  are  the  paths 
of  the__Iarger  lifel  In  such  work  the  noblest 
powers  are  engaged,  and  the  noblest  growth 
attained.     He  that  is  willing  to  walk  in  the  way 


38  The  Enrichment  of  Personality 

of  the  common  Christian  tasks  will  find  the 
path  mounting  to  the  points  of  vision  and 
inspiration. 

But  chiefest  of  all,  the  enlargement  of  man- 
hood is  to  be  gained  by  fellowship  with  Christ. 
It  was  said  of  the  early  preaching  of  Peter  and 
John  that  the  people  marvelled:  "And  they 
took  knowledge  of  them  that  they  had  been 
with  Jesus."  And  this  relation  has  been  true 
ever  since.  The  noblest  manhood  is  to  be  found 
by  commerce  with  the  thought  and  will  and  love 
of  the  perfect  life.  Christ's  most  distinguishing 
work  is  "the  discovery  and  reintegration  of 
broken  or  undeveloped  lives  and  their  upbuild- 
ing into  strength  and  effectiveness." 

The  modern  pulpit  calls  for  a  large  life;  and 
there  is  a  rich,  full  manhood  possible  for  any 
man  who  honestly  recognizes  his  nature  and 
its  limitations,  and  makes  a  consecrated  use  of 
the  divine  means  of  growth. 


Ill 

THE  PHYSICAL  LIFE  OF  THE  PREACHER 


OUTLINE 

The  Body  to  be  honored  as  a  worthy  part  of  man. 
Reasons  for  a  false  asceticism  in  the  ministry. 
The  harmony  of  the  physical  and  spiritual. 
The  Body  to  be  honored  as  the  servant  of  the  soul. 
The  basis  of  the  mental  and  the  spiritual. 
The  physical  expression  of  the  man. 
A  sound  body  and  the  best  personal  influence. 
The  relation  of  health  to  the  message. 
The  physical  strength  and  the  best  work. 
Reciprocal  relation  of  health  and  work. 
Health  and  the  voice. 

The  special  demand  of  the  age  upon  strength. 
How  shall  the  Physical  Strength  of  the  Preacher  be  preserved  7 
The  proper  diet  —  a  matter  of  discipline. 
The  proper  sleep  —  sleep  and  temperament. 
Exercise :  its  time,  place,  and  character. 

The  best  exercise  in  the  open  air  and  in  play.     The 
legitimate  functions  of  play. 
A  plea  for  disciplined  vitality  in  the  Preacher. 

References : 

Blaikie.     "How  to  get  Strong." 
King.     "Rational  Living."     Chap.  4-6. 
Beecher.      "Yale  Lectures,"  Vol.  I,  Chap.  8. 
Hall.     "Qualifications  for  Ministerial  Power." 
Chap.  2. 


40 


Ill 

THE  PHYSICAL  LIFE  OF  THE  PREACHER 

Charles  Simeon  of  Cambridge  University 
used  to  say  to  the  young  men  preparing  for  the 
ministry,  that  the  first  requisite  of  good,  hard 
reading  was  that  they  should  take  good  care 
of  the  third  milestone  out  of  Cambridge.  The 
preacher  is  called  by  virtue  of  the  completeness 
of  his  manhood.  This  means  that  he  is  to  be 
a  man  in  physical  life.  We  are  to  honor  the 
body  as  a  worthy  part  of  us,  to  be  trained  and 
used  as  truly  as  the  mind. 

What  is  the  Christian  conception  of  the  man  ? 
It  is  not  a  thin  and  contracted  and  wasted 
frame,  a  Simeon  Stylites,  passionless  as  a  burnt- 
out  volcano;  it  is  the  Christian  athlete  rather, 
with  muscular  limbs  and  well-rounded  chest, 
and  every  physical  faculty  developed  to  its 
utmost  efficiency. 

"Let  us  not  always  say, 
Spite  of  this  flesh  to-day 

I  strove,  made  head,  gained  ground  upon  the  whole ! 
As  the  bird  wings  and  sings, 
Let  us  cry,  '  All  good  things 

Are  ours;   nor  soul  helps  flesh  more  now  than  flesh 
helps  soul.' " 

41 


42        The  Physical  Life  of  the  Preacher 

There  has  been  at  times  a  contempt  for  the 
body,  an  effort  to  ignore  it  and  suppress  it  as 
though  it  were  an  enemy  of  spiritual  Hfe. 

LiteraHsm  has  played  the  mischief  with  the 
Scriptures  and  fastened  misconceptions  and  per- 
versions of  truth  upon  the  doctrines  and  practice 
of  generations  of  the  church.  The  demands  of 
Christ  "to  deny  self  and  take  up  the  cross  and 
follow  Him,"  "to  pluck  out  the  eye  if  it  offend, 
to  cut  off  the  hand  or  the  foot  if  it  cause  one  to 
stumble,"  have  been  interpreted  as  casting  re- 
flections upon  the  physical  life.  Paul's  famous 
duel  between  the  flesh  and  the  spirit,  his  strenu- 
ous figure  of  keeping  the  body  under,  were  in- 
terpreted in  the  light  of  the  old  dualism  of  the 
East,  as  fixing  the  seat  of  sin  in  the  physical  life 
and  not  solely  in  the  evil  desire  of  the  heart. 

Monasticism  came,  child  of  protest  to  the 
universal  insecurity  and  sensualism  of  the  Old 
World,  and  of  the  Oriental  dualism  of  good  and 
evil,  of  spirit  and  matter.  No  doubt  in  the 
providence  of  God  asceticism  had  its  work  to  do. 
We  do  not  reach  the  whole  truth  at  a  bound,  but 
by  painful  and  irregular  steps.  We  say  that 
the  world  had  to  be  taught  first  the  worth  of 
the  spirit,  —  the  soul  of  man  must  be  found ; 
and  the  truth  was  taught  by  emphasizing  the 
spirit  at  the  expense  of  the  body. 

We  have  attained  the  fuller  scripture  view 


The  Physical  Life  of  the  Preacher       43 

that  the  body  is  something  sacred  as  inseparable 
now  from  the  spirit,  as  a  part  of  the  personaHty. 
It  is  the  temple  of  God,  and  whoever  destroys 
it  "him  shall  God  destroy."  But  the  ascetic 
idea  is  hard  to  banish  from  the  religious  life.  A 
vigorous  body  is  still  associated  with  the  grosser 
temptations. 

In  a  recent  biography  of  Channing,  one  reads 
concerning  his  life  as  a  young  teacher  in  Rich- 
mond, Va.,  "'I  spent  a  year  and  a  half  there, 
and  perhaps  the  most  eventful  of  my  life.  I 
lived  alone,  too  poor  to  buy  books,  spending  my 
days  and  nights  in  an  outbuilding,  with  no  one 
beneath  my  room,  except  during  the  hours  of 
school  keeping.  There  I  toiled  as  I  have  never 
done  since,  for  gradually  my  body  sank  under 
the  unremitting  exertion.  With  not  a  human 
being  to  whom  I  could  communicate  my  deepest 
thoughts  and  feelings,  and  shrinking  from  com- 
mon society,  I  passed  through  intellectual  and 
moral  conflicts  of  heart  and  mind  so  absorbing 
as  often  to  banish  sleep,  and  to  destroy  almost 
wholly  the  power  of  digestion.  I  was  worn 
well-nigh  to  a  skeleton.  Yet  I  look  back  upon 
those  days  of  loneliness  and  frequent  gloom 
with  thankfulness.  If  I  ever  struggled  with  my 
whole  soul  for  purity,  truth,  and  goodness,  it 
was  there.  Then,  amidst  sore  trials,  the  great 
question,  I  trust,  was  settled  within  me,  whether 


44       The  Physical  Life  of  the  Preacher 

I  would  be  the  victim  of  passion,  the  world,  or 
the  free  child  and  servant  of  God. 

'"In  a  licentious  and  intemperate  city,  one 
spirit  was  preparing  at  least,  in  silence  and  lone- 
liness, to  toil  not  wholly  in  vain  for  truth  and 
holiness.'"  ^ 

His  biographer  wisely  comments  on  this  let- 
ter: "Much  beside  the  unremitting  study  and 
seclusion  contributed  to  Channing's  physical 
misery  and  the  depression  of  his  spirits.  It 
would  have  been  better  for  him  if  his  opinion 
that  'the  wants  of  the  body  are  few,'  'mind, 
mind,  requires  all  our  care,'  had  been  a  mere 
opinion.  Not  only  did  he  remain  at  his  books 
until  two  or  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and 
often  until  the  daylight  broke,  but  he  made 
harsh  experiments  in  living,  went  insufficiently 
clothed,  without  an  overcoat  in  winter  weather, 
sleeping  upon  a  bare  floor  in  a  cold  room,  eating 
very  little,  and  that  what  he  did  not  like.  He 
fancied  he  was  curbing  the  animal  nature,  when 
the  temptations  that  assailed  him  were  the 
spawn  of  his  ascetic  glooms.  He  thought  that 
he  was  hardening  himself,  when  he  was  making 
himself  frail  and  pervious  to  every  wind  that 
blew."  ' 

It  is  not  true,  as  we  well  know,  that  the  less 

*  Chadwick,  "Life  of  Channing,"  p.  52. 
2  Ibid.,  p.  53. 


The  Physical  Life  of  the  Preacher       45 

the  body  the  more  spirit.  Channing  was  him- 
self well  cured  of  his  conceit  that  he  must  build 
his  spiritual  temple  on  the  ruins  of  his  body. 

"This  frame,  so  weak,  sharp  sickness'  hue, 
And  this  pale  cheek  God  loves  in  you," 

was  no  longer  his  misconception,  and  he  strug- 
gled bravely  to  free  himself  from  the  evil  habits 
of  his  early  years. 

When  men  like  John  Hall  and  Phillips 
Brooks  and  Dwight  L.  Moody,  physical  giants, 
become  as  well  known  for  their  piety  and  spirit- 
ual power,  we  know  that  body  and  spirit  are 
not  opposing  terms.  The  man  who  has  a  strong, 
wholesome  physical  life  may  thank  God  for  it 
as  one  of  His  good  gifts. 

The  body  is  to  be  honored  as  the  servant  of 
the  soul,  the  instrument  of  the  immortal  spirit 
within.  It  is  the  basis  of  the  mental  and  spirit- 
ual life.  It  is  the  physical  expression  of  the 
man ;  it  bears  a  subtle  and  vital  relation  to  the 
soul  life.  In  some  sense  —  we  cannot  say  how 
far  —  the  visions  of  the  mind,  the  spiritual  states 
of  the  soul,  will  be  determined  by  the  conditions 
of  the  physical  life. 

F.  W.  Robertson  thus  comments  on  God's 
cure  of  Elijah's  dejection  by  giving  food,  rest, 
and  exercise:  "Persons  come  to  the  ministers 
of  God  in  seasons  of  despondency ;  they  pervert 


46       Tlie  Physical  Life  of  the  Preacher 

with  marvellous  ingenuity  all  the  consolation 
which  is  given  them,  turning  wholesome  food 
into  poison.  Then  we  perceive  the  wisdom  of 
God's  simple,  homely  treatment  of  Elijah,  and 
discover  that  there  are  spiritual  cases  for  the 
physician  rather  than  for  the  divine." 

And  Henry  Ward  Beecher  speaks  of  health 
as  the  sweetener  of  work,  "  There  is  no  pleasure 
in  the  world  comparable  to  that  which  a  man 
has  who  habitually  stands  before  an  audience 
with  an  errand  of  truth,  which  he  feels  in  every 
corner  of  his  soul,  and  in  every  fibre  of  his  body, 
and  to  whom  the  Lord  gives  liberty  of  utterance. 
But  I  am  conscious  how  largely  the  physical 
element  of  healthfulness  enters  into  this  ex- 
perience. When  I  am  depressed  in  body  and 
heavy  in  mind  I  do  not  get  it.  You  cannot  ex- 
pect either  these  exceptional,  higher  consum- 
mations, or  the  strong,  steady  flow  of  a  joyful 
relish  for  your  work,  unless  you  cultivate  a 
robust  and  healthful  manhood."  ^ 

The  body,  then,  is  to  be  kept  pure  and  sound, 
and  well  trained  as  the  servant  of  the  soul,  as 
the  means  of  its  expression  and  influence. 

Is  not  the  best  personal  influence  in  some  way 
connected  with  a  sound  body?  Beautiful  lives 
will  at  once  be  called  to  mind  that  are  limited 
and  crippled  by  weakness  and  suffering.    Pain 

1  Beecher,  "Yale  Lectures,"  Vol.  I,  p.  192. 


The  Physical  Life  of  the  Preacher       47 

may  be  a  minister  of  beauty.  But  such  min- 
istry is  in  quiet  spheres,  —  the  home,  the  circle 
of  loved  friends;  not  in  the  pubHc  places  of 
society  and  the  church.  Then  the  weak  lean 
upon  the  strong,  and  the  men  who  bear  the 
burdens  long,  without  being  themselves  crushed 
by  them,  —  the  burden  of  cares  and  sorrows 
and  sins,  —  must  have  some  strength  of  phys- 
ical Hfe  to  match  and  support  their  moral  power. 
It  was  upon  the  great  physical  and  moral  frame 
of  a  Lincoln  that  God  placed  the  burdens  of  a 
nation. 

It  is  certain  that  men  are  attracted  by  a  sound 
body,  by  a  wholesome  physical  life,  and  this  we 
should  seek  and  cultivate  as  a  means  of  personal 
influence.  The  first  impression  of  ourselves  and 
of  our  truth  is  made  through  the  physical  life, 
and  to  have  that  impression  pleasant  and  attrac- 
tive cannot  be  beneath  the  attention  of  a  Chris- 
tian minister.  Pity  is  the  last  thing  that  a 
manly  man  wishes  to  have.  Sympathy  he  ought 
to  receive  —  to  be  glad  to  receive  —  with  a 
humble  heart,  if  he  needs  sympathy  in  sickness 
and  trials.  But  pity  is  another  matter.  No 
man  would  be  pitied  for  his  physical  weakness 
if  he  has  the  soul  of  a  man ;  and  so,  if  limited 
in  any  physical  way,  he  tries  to  cover  it  up  and 
make  people  forget  it.  Pity  is  too  closely  allied 
with  contempt.    And  the  danger  is,  that  people 


48        The  Physical  Life  of  the  Preacher 

will  lose  respect  for  the  man  who  is  ever  the 
object  of  their  pity. 

There  is  natural  leadership  in  a  wholesome 
physical  life.  The  fact  that  young  Saul  had  an 
attractive  person  and  stood  head  and  shoulders 
above  the  people  pointed  to  his  natural  king- 
ship over  men.  The  body  has  not  only  to  do 
with  personal  influence  among  men,  but  with 
the  public  work  of  the  preacher. 

Our  teachings  need  the  color  of  health.  The 
stomach  has  more  to  do  than  we  think  with  the 
brain.  The  man  who  has  ever  had  a  touch  of 
genuine  dyspepsia  knows  how  sombre  the  very 
landscape  seems.  More  than  one  man  has  mis- 
taken some  disorder  of  his  stomach  for  religious 
feeling.  Shrewd  old  Lyman  Beecher  always  in- 
quired first  about  the  health,  if  one  came  to  him 
anxious  about  his  soul. 

"  Untold  spiritual  treasure  is  slipping  from  our 
hands  simply  because  we  forget  that  religious 
states,  as  well  as  other  states  of  mind,  stand  in 
a  reciprocal  relation  with  states  of  the  brain  and 
nervous  system."  ^ 

Browning  somewhere  has  a  line  about  a  man 
who  awakes  in  the  morning  with  the  colic  being 
unfit  for  empire.  "The  secret  of  many  a  dull, 
futile  sermon  is  the  depressed  vitality  of  the 
minister."     The  morbid  sensitiveness  of  a  Rob- 

'  Coe,  "The  Spiritual  Life,"  p.  86. 


The  Physical  Life  of  the  Preacher       49 

ertson,  the  beneficent  sanity  of  a  Phillips  Brooks, 
had  foundation  in  the  physical  manhood  of  each. 

There  is  vital  relation  between  health  and 
thought.  "Men  in  a  high  state  of  health  in- 
variably see  more  sharply  the  truth  that  they 
are  after.  They  see  its  relations  and  its  fitness. 
They  have  a  sense  of  direction,  combination, 
and  of  the  power  of  relations  of  truth  to  emo- 
tion. The  old-fashioned  way  of  preparing  a 
sermon  was  when  a  man  sat  down  with  his  pipe, 
and  smoked  and  thought  as  he  called  it,  and 
after  one,  or  two,  or  three  hours,  —  his  wife 
saying  to  everybody  in  the  meantime,  'Dear 
man,  he  is  upstairs  studying ;  he  has  to  study  so 
hard!' — in  which  he  has  been  in  a  muggy, 
fumbling  state  of  mind,  he  at  last  comes  out 
with  the  product  of  it  for  the  pulpit.  It  is  like 
unleavened  bread,  doughy,  dumpy,  and  heavy, 
—  hard  to  eat  and  harder  to  digest.  There  has 
been  nothing  put  in  it  to  vitalize  it.  But  when 
a  man  is  in  a  perfect  state  of  health,  no  matter 
where  he  goes,  he  is  sensitive  to  social  influence, 
and  to  social  wants.  He  discovers  men's  neces- 
sities instinctively.  He  is  very  quick  to  choose 
the  instruments  by  which  to  minister  to  those 
necessities,  so  that  when  he  goes  to  his  study  he 
has  something  to  do,  and  he  knows  what  it  is."  ^ 

We  are  to  cheer  and  uplift  men  by  our  pulpit 
1  Beecher,  "  Yale  Lectures,"  Vol.  I,  p.  185. 


50       The  Physical  Life  of  the  Preacher 

speech.  It  is  the  soundest  philosophy  of  preach- 
ing. "The  failure  of  the  pulpit  is  marked  in 
respect  to  the  mission  of  comfort,"  says  Austin 
Phelps  in  ''Men  and  Books."  "If  there  is  one 
thing  more  obvious  than  another,  in  the  general 
strain  of  Apostolic  preaching,  it  is  the  prepon- 
derance of  words  of  encouragement  over  those  of 
reproof  and  commination.  In  no  other  thing 
did  inspired  preachers  disclose  their  inspired 
knowledge  of  human  conditions  more  clearly. 
The  world  of  to-day  needs  the  same  adaptation 
of  the  pulpit  to  its  wants.  We  preach  to  a  suf- 
fering and  struggling  humanity.  Tempted  men 
and  sorrowing  women  are  our  hearers.  Never 
is  a  sermon  preached,  but  to  some  hearers  who 
are  carrying  a  load  of  secret  grief. 

"  It  is  vastly  easier  to  denounce  secret  sin  than 
to  cheer  struggling  virtue.  Look  over  any  large 
concourse  of  Christian  worshippers,  number  the 
anxious  and  stern  faces  among  them,  —  faces  of 
men  and  women  who  are  in  the  thick  of  life's 
conflict.  Where  shall  the  cunning  hand  be 
found  to  reach  out  and  keep  from  falling  these 
weary  ones?  Very  early  in  life  does  the  great 
struggle  of  probation  begin.  The  buoyant  joy 
of  youth  is  short-lived. 

"Shades  of  the  prison-house  begin  to  close 
upon  the  growing  boy.  With  this  one  feature  of 
human  experience,  probation,  the  mission  of  the 


The  Physical  Life  of  the  Preacher       51 

pulpit  has  chiefly  to  do.  Above  all  other  things, 
therefore,  in  the  clerical  character,  this  world 
craves  the  power  of  helpfulness.  The  Master 
walking  on  the  sea  in  the  night,  and  stretching 
forth  his  hand  to  the  sinking  Peter,  is  the  emblem 
of  that  which  the  Christian  preacher  must  be 
in  every  age,  if  he  would  speak  to  real  conditions 
and  minister  to  exigent  necessities."  ^ 

And  the  point  of  the  argument  is  simply  this : 
the  man  of  sound  body,  with  the  vigor  of  health 
in  his  veins,  whose  feelings  and  views  are  not 
colored  by  weakness  and  disease,  is  most  likely 
to  give  the  cheering,  uplifting  message  of  the 
Gospel. 

Health  is  demanded  for  the  best  work.  There 
is  a  buoyancy  and  energy  in  a  full  life  that  must 
find  expression.  It  will  not  need  to  be  driven 
by  the  lash  of  necessity  or  a  strenuous  will,  but 
will  spring  to  its  work  as  a  privilege,  a  thing  of 
joy.  The  best  work  is  always  the  outflow  of  a 
tireless  energy.  We  must  love  our  work  if  it  is 
to  be  the  noble  work  we  desire. 

And  this  is  closely  connected  with  our  physical 
life.  However  lofty  the  purpose  and  pure  the 
love,  a  weak  and  sickly  body  will  make  the  work 
drag  heavily.  The  boy  must  play  if  he  is  a  well 
boy.  The  physical  life  must  find  an  outlet,  and 
so  he  runs  and  shouts  in  the  mere  exuberant  joy 

*  Austin  Phelps,  "Men  and  Books,"  p.  30. 


52       The  Physical  Life  of  the  Preacher 

of  life.  Now  a  strong  and  well  man  has  some 
such  feeling  as  this.  Take  a  man  who  is  worn 
out  with  his  work.  He  cannot  sleep;  he  cares 
nothing  for  his  food.  He  leaves  his  business, 
goes  where  care  is  shut  out;  gives  himself  to 
rest  and  recreation,  sleeps  and  eats,  and  in  a 
week  he  will  say,  —  I  feel  like  a  boy  again. 
Now,  it  is  this  fulness  of  physical  life,  this  abound- 
ing vitality,  that  the  minister  should  seek  to  pre- 
serve, that  service  may  not  be  drudgery  but  a 
life-giving  expression. 

And  it  should  be  noted  here  that  the  joy  of 
work  has  a  corresponding  effect  on  the  physical 
life.  "It  literally  makes  us  live  more,  and  so 
gives  a  deeper  sense  of  all  other  life.  For  this 
very  reason  it  helps  directly  to  convictions  which 
make  volitions  easy.  As  Keats  puts  it,  'Axioms 
are  not  axioms  until  they  have  been  felt  upon 
our  pulses.'  We  are  made  for  joy  —  body  and 
mind ;  our  very  constitution  proclaims  it.  Pain 
is  not  a  good  in  itself;  and  unnecessary  depres- 
sion and  needless  worry  only  lessen  our  power 
for  work,  and,  what  is  more,  weaken  our  power 
to  will.  The  relation  is  close  and  simple.  Joy 
directly  increases  our  vitality.  Greater  vitality 
gives  greater  sense  of  reality.  This  means 
stronger  convictions.  Of  convictions  purposes 
are  born.  And  conviction  and  purpose  make 
influence  certain.     The  spiritual  life  may  not 


The  Physical  Life  of  the  Preacher       53 

safely  ignore  these  plain  facts.  Joy  has  its 
very  distinct  mission  and  place  in  the  spiritual 
life.  Are  not  Christian  ministers  too  prone  to 
forget  that  the  message  they  are  set  to  bring 
is  a  Gospel  —  good  news  ?  An  ultimate  message 
of  hope  is  essential  to  the  strongest  living."  ^ 

As  to  the  fulness  of  the  physical  life,  take  the 
matter  of  the  voice  alone.  It  has  a  physical 
quality  as  truly  as  it  is  the  index  of  the  soul. 
Health  or  disease  sounds  in  its  tones.  The 
preacher  needs  above  all  men  a  sound  and 
strong  body,  that  the  voice  may  have  what 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  called  the  "thrust  power," 
—  conveying  the  sense  of  power,  matching  the 
truth  with  the  sound,  and  pressing  it  home  upon 
us. 

"Who  are  the  speakers  that  move  the  crowd? 
They  are  the  men  of  great  vitality  and  recupera- 
tive power.  They  are  men  who,  while  they  have 
a  sufficient  thought-power  to  create  all  the 
material  needed,  have  preeminently  the  ex- 
plosive power  by  which  they  can  thrust  their 
materials  out  at  men.  They  are  catapults,  and 
men  go  down  before  them.  Of  course,  you  will 
find  men  now  and  then,  thin  and  shrivelled 
voiced,  who  are  popular  speakers.  Sometimes 
men  are  organized  with  a  compact  nervous 
temperament  and  are  slender  framed,  while 
^  King,  "Rational  Living,"  p.  138. 


54       The  Physical  Life  of  the  Preacher 

they  have  a  certain  concentrated  earnestness, 
and  in  narrow  lines  they  move  with  great  in- 
tensity.   John  Randolph  was  such  a  man."  ^ 

Then  the  special  demands  upon  the  pulpit  are 
met  only  by  a  great  expenditure  of  physical 
life.  The  changed  conditions  of  life  in  our 
country  make  physical  manhood  an  essential 
for  large  success.  And  it  is  true  in  no  sphere 
as  in  the  pulpit,  where  vivacity  of  manner  and 
range  and  volume  of  voice,  physical  qualities, 
are  so  instrumental  in  impressing  the  truth.  A 
thin,  piping  tone,  a  lassitude  of  manner  indi- 
cating low  vitality,  are  almost  powerless  in 
swaying  the  minds  of  men. 

"In  successful  public  speaking  the  mind 
becomes  abnormally  awake,  every  nerve  is 
stretched  to  its  utmost,  and  an  added  strain  is 
laid  upon  the  heart.  Only  a  man  strong  in 
body  can  bear  a  load  so  heavy  through  a  term 
of  years.  First  the  stomach  succumbs,  then 
the  nerves  fail,  then  the  voice  grows  flabby,  the 
sword  with  which  the  preacher  must  do  his  work 
thus  losing  its  edge,  and  his  power  over  a  con- 
gregation being  hopelessly  broken."  ^ 

There  is  not  too  much  scholarship  in  our 
seminaries,  but  less  learning  would  be  safer 
than  less  bodily  exercise.    When  John  Angell 

»  Beecher,  "Yale  Lectures,"  Vol.  I,  p.  1S7. 
2  Jefferson,  "The  Minister  as  Prophet,"  p.  44. 


The  Physical  Life  of  the  Preacher       55 

James,  the  predecessor  at  Birmingham  of  Dr. 
Dale,  finished  his  college  course,  "he  was  re- 
markable for  nothing  but  impetuosity,  breadth 
of  chest,  and  such  strongly  developed  pugilistic 
tendencies  as  to  warrant  the  blunt  estimate  of 
his  character,  —  '  the  thick-headed  fool  is  fit  for 
nothing  but  fighting.'"  And  yet  he  became 
one  of  the  noblest  and  most  efficient  ministers 
of  the  Word  in  the  nineteenth  century.  Edu- 
cation with  him  had  not  been  a  process  of 
emasculation,  and  he  swept  men  with  a  mag- 
nificent physical  earnestness. 

It  ought  to  be  said  that  there  has  been  a  great 
improvement  in  the  care  and  training  of  the 
body  in  the  last  twenty  years.  A  college  gym- 
nasium is  no  longer  considered  a  mere  ornament, 
as  useless  as  a  zoological  garden,  but  physical 
training  has  taken  its  place  beside  mental  and 
moral,  and  outdoor  sports  have  added  the  zest 
of  the  mind  to  the  exercise  of  the  body.  "The 
ideal  student,"  in  the  words  of  President  Eliot 
of  Harvard,  "has  been  transformed  from  a 
stooping,  weak,  and  sickly  youth,  into  one  well- 
formed,  robust,  and  healthy."  The  figure  of 
the  young  college  man  at  the  World's  Fair, 
Chicago,  formed  from  the  measurements  of  ten 
years  by  Dr.  Sargent  of  Harvard  Gymnasium, 
is  not  unworthy  to  be  put  beside  the  figure  of 
the  Apollo  Belvedere. 


56        The  Physical  Life  of  the  Preacher 

The  practical  question  is,  How  shall  a  man 
keep  and  use  his  physical  strength  in  the  min- 
istry? Three  things  have  to  do  with  our 
health  and  strength,  viz. :  food,  sleep,  and 
exercise. 

Every  man  should  judge  for  himself  what 
kind  and  quantity  of  food  he  should  take,  and 
if  need  be,  this  judgment  should  be  formed 
with  the  help  of  the  wisest  physician.  It  is  a 
matter  of  discipline,  remember,  not  what  may 
please  the  palate  for  the  moment,  but  what  will 
give  the  greatest  strength  for  service. 

Then,  —  sleep,  and  enough  of  it.  But  the 
time  will  vary  with  the  temperament.  Many 
a  man  is  working  into  the  late  hours  of  the 
night,  burning  the  candle  at  both  ends,  deceiv- 
ing himself  with  the  idea  that  he  is  a  great 
worker,  when,  by  lack  of  system,  he  pushes  into 
the  night  what  could  just  as  well  have  been 
accomplished  by  daylight,  with  ordinary  devo- 
tion. President  Mark  Hopkins  gave  as  the 
secret  of  his  sturdy  health  and  great  power  even 
into  old  age,  that  he  always  slept  when  he  was 
tired. 

"The  truth  is,  you  secretly  despise  the  details 
of  living.  You  pay  no  regard  to  the  manage- 
ment of  yourself.  You  fancy  it  is  a  noble 
Spartan  virtue  to  neglect  your  body;  and  so, 
without  being  an  ascetic,  you  just  go  on  care- 


The  Physical  Life  of  the  Preacher       57 

lessly,  casually,  while  the  mechanism  is  con- 
tinually running  down  through  sheer  inatten- 
tion. For  instance,  you  were  confessing  to  me 
how  rarely  you  keep  any  sort  of  rule  as  to  bed- 
time, so  that  sleep  grows  shy  of  such  an  erratic 
wooer,  and  you  work  next  day,  jaded  and  de- 
pressed. We  should  hear  of  fewer  nervous 
breakdowns,  if  men  understood  that  regular 
sleep  is  as  important  as  regular  food.  As  to 
exercise,  I  have  heard  you  plead  the  hoary  old 
excuse,  you  are  too  busy.  That  may  be  quite 
true,  but  it  is  quite  invalid.  You  have  no 
business  to  be  so  busy.  You  will  double  your 
real  efficiency  when  you  cancel  half  your  small 
engagements.  You  are  a  Christian  specialist, 
and  on  the  very  lowest  ground  you  cheapen 
your  office,  as  well  as  dissipate  your  energy,  by 
this  endless  entanglement  in  petty  local  affairs; 
it  is  fatal  to  the  mental  aloofness  and  spiritual 
detachment  which  your  proper  work  requires."  ^ 

And  what  shall  we  do  for  exercise  ? 

What  are  the  requisites  for  the  best  physical 
training?  A  set  time,  a  fixed  amount,  in  the 
open  air,  and  of  a  kind  that  shall  engage  the 
mind  as  well  as  the  body.  A  minister  may  need 
to  content  himself  for  most  of  the  time  with 
work  in  his  garden,  caring  for  his  horse  or  cow, 
walking  or  riding  in  his  parish  work.  These  are 
1  "The  Clerical  Life,"  p.  142. 


58        The  Physical  Life  of  the  Preacher 

all  good,  but  not  the  best.  The  best  exercise 
is  that  which  engages  the  mind  as  well  as  the 
body;  not  the  mind  in  serious  thought,  but  in 
exciting  and  absorbing  play.  If  a  man  cannot 
have  a  half  hour  a  day  in  gymnasium,  or  on 
tennis  court,  or  in  some  other  play,  then  let  him 
devote  a  whole  day  as  often  as  once  a  month  to 
recreation.  The  minister  is  to  be  pitied  who 
does  not  know  how  to  recreate,  who  is  not  fond 
of  some  out-of-door  sport. 

We  must  not  forget  the  two  very  simple  and 
primal  laws  of  our  nature,  the  law  of  play  as  the 
means  of  physical  growth,  and  the  law  of  play 
as  the  means  of  repairing  the  wastes  of  work. 
Play  is  no  less  divine  than  work.  We  see  this 
in  the  child.  The  boy  that  plays  the  best,  other 
things  equal,  makes  the  best  man.  And  when 
manhood  is  reached,  the  mission  of  play  is  not 
ended.  It  exercises  the  faculties  untouched  by 
toil,  and  so  helps  to  harmonious  development. 
By  the  enjoyable  use  of  other  powers,  it  enables 
the  toiler  to  rest  those  weary  with  too  constant 
use.  Play  keeps  men  from  becoming  the  thing 
they  do.  It  trains  the  weak  and  flabby  muscle 
into  manly  strength  and  says  to  work,  "You 
shall  not  take  all  the  freshness  and  buoyancy 
out  of  life,  and  turn  the  human  form  divine 
into  a  mere  thinking  machine." 

Play  has  a  legitimate  function  in  the  life  of 


The  Physical  Life  of  tlw  Preacher        59 

the  man  as  the  child.  A  great  blessing  would  it 
be  if  the  world  recognized  this  fact  and  resorted 
to  recreation  intelligently  and  conscientiously, 
and  forever  exploded  the  idea  that  play  is  in- 
consistent with  Christian  devotion  and  worldly 
thrift  and  manly  dignity. 

What  a  delight  has  he  who  can  turn  from  the 
weariness  of  books  to  the  mental  rest  and 
physical  action  of  true  recreation ! 

"  Up,  up !  my  friend,  and  quit  your  books, 
Or  surely  you'll  grow  double ; 
Up,  up  !  my  friend,  and  clear  your  looks; 
Why  all  this  toil  and  trouble  ? 

"The  sun  above  the  mountain's  head, 
A  freshening  lustre  mellow, 
Through  all  the  long  green  field  has  spread 
His  first  sweet  evening  yellow. 

"Books !  'tis  a  dull  and  endless  strife: 
Come,  hear  the  woodland  Linnet, 
How  sweet  his  music !  on  my  life, 
There's  more  of  wisdom  in  it. 

"And  hark !  how  blithe  the  throstle  sings ! 
He,  too,  is  no  mean  preacher : 
Come  forth  into  the  light  of  things, 
Let  Nature  be  your  teacher. 

"  She  has  a  world  of  ready  wealth. 
Our  minds  and  hearts  to  bless  — 
Spontaneous  wisdom,  breathed  by  health, 
Truth  breathed  by  cheerfulness. 


60        The  Physical  Life  of  the  Preacher 

"  One  impulse  from  a  vernal  wood, 
May  teach  you  more  of  man, 
Of  moral  evil  and  of  good. 
Than  all  the  sages  can. 

"  Enough  of  science  and  of  art ; 
Close  up  those  barren  leaves ; 
Come  forth,  and  bring  with  you  a  heart 
That  watches  and  receives."  ' 

Dr.  John  Brown,  the  genial  Scotch  essayist, 
deals  with  the  case  of  the  preacher  who  thinks 
himself  too  busy  and  earnest  to  indulge  in 
physical  exercise  and  recreation:  "All  very 
well,  say  you,  '  it  is  easy  speaking  and  saying  — 
"Take  it  easy,"  but  if  the  pot's  on  the  fire  it 
maun  bile.'  It  must,  but  you  needn't  poke  up 
the  fire  forever ;  and  you  may  now  and  then  set 
the  kettle  on  the  hob  and  let  it  sing,  instead  of 
leaving  it  to  burn  its  bottom  out."  ^ 

We  cannot  have  bodies  too  sound  and  strong 
for  our  work.  We  shall  need  every  particle  of 
disciplined  vitality  for  the  strenuous  activity 
demanded  of  the  minister  in  this  age  and  land, 
and  for  the  risks  and  exposures  of  foreign  lands. 
In  every  public  service  of  the  minister  the 
physical  life  tells,  and  there  are  certain  times  of 
strain  and  exposure,  of  tremendous  responsi- 
bility, when  the  burdens  of  many  lives  are  put 

'  Arnold's  Wordsworth,  "The  Tables  Turned,"  p.  137. 
»  "  Spare  Hours,"  Vol.  2,  page  146. 


The  Physical  Life  of  the  Preacher        61 

upon  him,  that  only  a  life  with  these  resources 
of  strength  can  endure  the  strain.  We  may  re- 
joice that  in  any  work,  or  exercise,  or  recreation 
that  becomes  a  man,  we  may  have  a  part.  The 
laws  of  health,  of  food  and  rest  and  exercise, 
are  as  much  God's  laws  as  the  Decalogue  and 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  Nature's  laws  are 
God's  laws. 

"And  out  of  darkness  came  the  hands 
That  reach  thro'  nature,  moulding  men." 

Let  us  not  fail  because  we  lack  the  courage  or 
are  too  self-indulgent  to  enter  upon  such  a 
course  of  life  as  a  true  Christian  manliness 
requires. 

"No  special  gifts  can  absorb  a  minister  from 
the  elementary  obligation  to  keep  his  body  and 
mind  at  the  highest  possible  pitch  of  efficiency 
for  the  work  which  is  given  him  to  do."  ^ 

The  whole  doctrine  of  physical  manhood  for 
the  preacher  is  not  the  body  for  the  body's  sake, 
but  for  Christ's  sake.  Shall  we  not  say  with 
Charles  Kingsley,  "  I  could  wish  that  I  were  an 
Apollo  for  His  sake !" 

^  "Clerical  Life,"  p.  140. 


IV 

THE  INTELLECTUAL   LIFE   OF  THE 
PREACHER 


OUTLINE 

Christianity  and  the  Intellectual  Life. 

The  Bible  does  not  substitute  piety  for  the  intellectual  life. 
Christianity  has  quickened  the  intellectual  life. 
The  intellectual  life  in  the  pulpit. 
The  breadth  of  its  intellectual  work. 
The  influence  of  Intellectual  Culture  upon  the  character  of  the 

Preacher. 
It  makes  men  sincere.     It   corrects  the  tendencies  of  a 

false  liberalism  and  a  false  conservatism. 
It  makes  men  humble.     HumiUty  is  born  of  the  larger 

vision  of  truth  and  life.     Convictions  are  held  in  the 

spirit  of  tolerance. 
It  makes  balanced  men. 
The  law  of  change  and  variety  in  work. 
The  influence  of  Intellectual  Culture  upon  Preaching. 
It  maintains  a  high  ideal  of  the  sermon. 
It  meets  the  demand  for  strong  preaching. 
It  keeps  the  pulpit  from  mental  poverty. 
It  sustains  a  full  life. 

It  makes  the  sermon  appropriate  and  timely. 
It  makes  the  sermon  a  growth,  the  expression  of  a  growing 

hfe. 
Effect  upon  the  style  of  the  sermon. 
The  relation  of  Intellectual  Culture  to  the  Preacher's  personal 

influence. 
Influence  depends  upon  the  range  of  interests. 
The  use  for  the  noblest  culture. 

References  : 

Phelps.     "The  theory  of  Preaching."     Lect.  40. 
Boyd-Carpenter.     "Lectures     on     Preaching." 

Lect.  2. 
Tucker.     "The    Making  and    Unmaking  of   the 

Preacher."     Lect.  2. 
King.     "Rational  Living." 


64 


IV 

THE   INTELLECTUAL  LIFE   OF  THE 
PREACHER 

In  considering  the  intellectual  life  of  the 
preacher,  to  the  exclusion,  for  the  moment,  of 
the  particular  questions  of  piety  and  spirituality, 
the  head  is  not  exalted  at  the  expense  of  the 
heart.  Piety  is  the  first  and  indispensable 
requisite  of  the  pulpit.  The  man  who  does  not 
have  a  personal  knowledge  of  the  Christ,  a  fixed 
purpose,  and  a  daily  striving  to  do  what  pleases 
Him,  can  be  neither  His  friend  nor  His  mes- 
senger. While  thus  exalting  the  spiritual  life, 
it  needs  frequent  utterance,  that  piety  cannot 
be  a  substitute  for  mental  power  and  possession. 

No  such  mistake  is  ever  made  in  the  Scriptures. 
The  Lord  chose  a  few  humble  men,  to  be  sure, 
but  their  mental  nature  received  a  marvellous 
quickening  and  training  by  the  Master-Teacher. 
The  young  fisherman  of  Galilee  grew  to  be  the 
profound  interpreter  of  the  life  of  Christ,  and  of 
the  Christian's  deepest  experience.  The  con- 
ception of  a  preacher  in  the  Old  Testament  is 
F  65 


66      The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

a  teacher.  A  prophet  declares  that  "the  priest's 
lips  should  keep  knowledge."^  " Give  attention 
to  reading"  is  the  word  of  the  Apostle  Paul. 
He  would  have  his  ministers  "workmen  that 
need  not  be  ashamed,  rightly  dividing  the  Word 
of  Life."  "Add  to  faith,  knowledge."  Faith 
and  knowledge  are  joined  in  the  divine  plan  of 
character  and  power.  Faith  is  to  be  rational 
and  knowledge  spiritual. 

Then  we  must  always  remember  that  piety, 
spirituality,  is  not  a  mere  matter  of  emotion. 
It  is,  first  of  all,  a  mental  state,  the  "mind  of  the 
Spirit"  and  the  "mind  of  Christ";  a  clear 
rational  view  of  truth  and  duty  in  the  Gospel, 
a  mental  concept,  ever  growing  in  vividness  and 
reality,  as  the  faculties  of  the  mind  consider  the 
things  of  Christ. 

Through  the  intellect  must  truth  touch  the 
affections  and  will,  and  become  love  and  pur- 
pose. Feeble  and  evanescent  the  feelings, 
however  pure  and  holy  at  the  time,  that  are  not 
fed  by  great  thoughts.  So  in  pleading  for  a 
true  intellectual  culture,  I  also  plead  for  that 
which  is  essential  to  a  strong  and  abiding 
spirituality. 

The  Spirit  is  the  Spirit  of  wisdom  and  under- 
standing, and  must  lead  to  conviction  by  first 
bringing  truth  to  bear  upon  the  perception  and 
»  Mai.  ii.  7. 


The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher      67 

reason,  the  mental  nature.  He  is  the  Spirit  of 
truth  and  so  cannot  tolerate  the  careless,  and 
superficial,  and  thoughtless  dealing  with  the 
mighty  problems  of  being. 

Revelation  is  embodied  in  a  history,  and 
literature,  and  philosophy ;  and  while  the  King's 
highway  is  lifted  up,  plain  even  for  a  simple- 
minded  wayfarer,  the  life  to  which  it  points 
transcends  human  experience,  and  starts  the 
mind  upon  the  track  of  infinite  search.  The 
truths  of  Christianity  make  their  appeal  to 
reason,  and  demand  the  exercise  of  the  highest 
reason  of  man. 

Christianity  has  largely  made  the  intellectual 
life.  The  Bible  has  freed  the  mind  and  quick- 
ened its  powers,  and  led  to  the  investigations  of 
science,  and  the  discussions  of  being,  and  the 
critical  dealing  with  theory  and  fact.  The 
Bible  stands  in  an  ever  growing  environment  of 
meditation,  and  criticism,  and  interpretation. 
Christianity  has  created  the  pulpit  and  the 
modern  sermon  with  its  educative  force,  with  its 
duty  of  feeding  the  mind  as  well  as  the  heart. 
It  cannot  do  the  latter  without  the  first. 

There  are  good  men,  not  marked  by  mental 
keenness  and  culture,  even  illiterate  men,  who 
have  been  spiritual  forces.  One  may  admit 
the  word  of  Dr.  Robertson  Nicoll :  "The  greatest 
good  has  been  accomplished  by  untutored  men 


68      The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

who  have  declared  the  Gospel  of  Christ  with 
passionate  earnestness  and  the  intense  love  of 
souls." 

But  the  highest  mental  culture  and  attain- 
ment can  find  unreached  heights  and  depths 
in  the  Gospel,  and  in  this  time  of  rapid  enlight- 
enment, the  growth  of  popular  education  is 
making  new  and  higher  demands  upon  the 
ministry. 

No  one  can  be  long  misled  by  the  fancy  that 
the  world  is  to  be  gained  by  social  management 
or  fervent  feeling.  The  brain  in  the  end  will 
govern  the  feet.  The  long  and  hard  mental 
work  of  the  schools  is  but  the  beginning  of  the 
matured  and  concentrated  work  of  manhood. 
A  scholarly  ministry  will  always  outlast  an 
emotional  one,  and  build  a  stronger  Church. 
The  influence  of  Scotchmen  to-day  upon  the 
intellectual  life  of  the  English-speaking  world, 
their  supremacy  in  statesmanship,  philosophy, 
criticism,  literature,  and  religion,  can  be  traced 
unmistakably  to  an  educated  pulpit,  that 
taught  men  to  think  upon  the  greatest  subjects. 

Men  sometimes  grow  impatient  of  careful 
criticism  and  what  they  please  to  call  the  dry 
intellectual  life  of  the  schools.  Of  course,  it  is 
possible  to  have  a  scholarship  in  which  all  the 
elemental  passions  are  dried  up.  Criticism  may 
dwell  so  minutely  on  little  things  as  to  lose  all 


The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher     69 

prophetic  vision.  But  we  cannot  afford  to  do 
wittiout  this  foundation  work.  It  is  much  like 
the  great  piers  of  the  bridge  —  largely  out  of 
sight  —  on  which  the  arches  rest,  and  over 
which  the  multitudes  pass  safely  to  and  fro. 

We  must  be  mentally  alive  to  the  present 
problems  of  religion,  to  the  varied  and  pressing 
questions  of  our  civilization.  Many  voices  tell 
us  that  our  eyes  must  be  open;  that  we  must 
set  our  intellectual  manhood  to  interpret  the 
life  of  the  generation,  that  we  suffer  no  truth 
of  man  or  of  nature  to  possess  our  fellow- 
men,  forming  laws  of  conduct  and  ideals  of  life, 
while  we  stand  deaf  and  dumb,  ignorant  and 
speechless. 

It  means  the  perspective  of  history,  against 
which  each  problem  shows  its  true  significance. 
It  means  patient  hours  of  study  while  other  men 
rest  or  recreate.  It  means  mental  keenness  and 
breadth.  The  words  of  an  eminent  jurist  have 
a  meaning  for  the  preacher:  ''No  man  ever 
comes  to  great  eminence  in  the  law  without  a 
white  face  and  a  bent  back." 

We  are  to  be  preeminently  teachers  of  men, 
and  this  is  intellectual  work,  and  this  implies 
that  we  be  "learners,"  to  use  the  Old  Testa- 
ment name  for  the  prophet. 

"He  who  would  guide  the  thought  of  this 
perplexed  age  on  the  highest  of  all  themes  must 


70      The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

set  himself  to  master  his  instrument  by  dis- 
cipline, by  labor,  by  economies,  even  perhaps 
by  agonies." 

The  breadth  of  intellectual  work  demanded 
of  the  preacher  must  teach  the  need  of  scholarly 
culture.  He  is  to  make  an  inductive  study  of 
men,  the  heredity,  training,  ideas,  motives, 
character,  and  circumstances,  of  each  person  of 
his  parish,  —  to  know  men,  not  in  the  mass, 
but  as  the  individual.  He  is  the  pathologist 
of  the  soul,  and  whatever  will  throw  light  upon 
man,  —  whatever  is  the  expression  of  the  race, 
or  the  age,  or  the  individual  —  history,  or  poetry, 
or  philosophy,  whatever  it  may  be,  —  is  within 
the  range  of  his  eager  inquiry. 

Then  he  is  to  be  the  inductive  student  of  the 
Scriptures.  Whatever  will  make  the  Bible  a 
real  and  living  book;  whatever  will  give  him 
the  mastery  of  the  instrument  of  words,  putting 
him  in  the  place  of  the  sacred  writers,  living  in 
their  atmosphere,  seeing  truth  as  they  saw  it, 
—  all  this  is  within  the  sphere  of  his  earnest 
study. 

Then  in  our  work  truth  is  not  for  its  own  sake. 
It  is  to  be  converted  into  conviction,  and  pur- 
pose, and  passion;  and  all  this  made  vocal 
that  men  may  hear  and  believe. 

Whatever  shall  teach  the  minister  to  think 
clearly  and  consistently ;  whatever  shall  quicken 


The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher      71 

his  sensibilities,  and  make  them  keen  and  pure  ; 
whatever  shall  make  his  speech  a  fit  and  effec- 
tive instrument  of  thought,  —  all  this  is  a  proper 
object  of  training  and  is  vitally  affected  by  the 
intellectual  life. 

Such  in  general  is  the  breadth  of  the  minister's 
work,  and  such  the  variety  of  intellectual  in- 
terest and  training  demanded  for  the  highest 
power. 

Now,  to  come  closer  to  the  subject,  let  us  ask 
the  value  of  scholarly  culture  for  the  minister 
as  a  man,  the  minister  as  a  preacher,  and  the 
minister  as  a  leader  of  men. 

Relation  to  character. 

The  influence  of  scholarly  culture  is  to  make 
men  sincere,  humble,  well-balanced,  uniting  ear- 
nestness with  charity. 

The  Christian  scholar  desires  to  be  true,  true 
in  thought  and  true  in  life,  and  this  is  the 
natural  result  of  a  sanctified  scholarship.  Natu- 
ral moods,  gusts  of  feeling,  often  leading  to 
eccentric  forms  of  doctrine  and  life,  are  judged 
by  reason  and  modified  by  the  history  of  opin- 
ion. There  are  two  strong  tendencies  in  the 
church,  as  there  have  often  been  before,  with 
varying  degree;  the  one  exalting  individual 
opinion,  the  other  resting  on  authority. 

There  are  men  whose  mental  and  emotional 
attitude  is  ever  looking  forward.     They  have 


72      The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

little  reverence  for  the  past,  but  great  respect 
for  the  present  and  their  own  opinions.  They 
have  a  passion  for  change,  identifying  change 
with  progress.  So  the  new  things  in  the  Church 
must  be  the  true  things :  the  new  forms  of  wor- 
ship and  work,  the  new  views  of  Scripture,  and 
the  new  statements  of  doctrine.  It  is  some- 
what a  matter  of  temperament,  and  still  more 
of  training ;  but  young  men,  I  think,  as  a  class, 
are  fond  of  what  promises  progress.  And  they 
ought  to  be  so,  for  to  the  open  hearts  and  minds 
of  young  men,  God's  truth  may  come  with  fuller 
measure  and  force.  ''A  young  man's  first  im- 
pressions of  truth  and  life  are  among  God's 
reformatory  forces  of  the  world."  —  Stalker. 

And  yet  we  must  feel  that  the  tendency  is 
sometimes  a  temptation  to  novelty  and  self- 
assertion.  There  is  an  undue  eagerness  for  the 
new,  without  the  patient  waiting  to  find  whether 
it  has  foundation  more  real  than  fancy.  And 
the  right  of  the  individual  conscience  and  the 
spirit  of  independence  not  seldom  drive  men  from 
beaten  paths  to  pursue  truth,  when  it  is  the 
mirage  of  their  own  vision  they  are  following. 

And  the  other  tendency  is  also  marked:  to 
rest  upon  received  opinion  and  customary  form 
and  method.  What  has  been  found  concern- 
ing the  Scriptures  is  the  limit  of  knowledge; 
what  has  been  done  by  the  Church  in  work  and 


The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher     73 

worship  must  have  exact  repetition  in  every 
age.  And  so  men  of  this  spirit  do  as  the  fathers 
have  done,  without  regard  to  the  new  problems 
and  particular  needs  of  the  generation;  and 
they  speak  truth  in  the  form  and  spirit  of  another 
age,  blind  to  the  fuller  light  that  providence 
and  the  Spirit  of  God  has  thrown  upon  the 
sacred  page.  What  shall  be  the  corrective  of 
the  evil  extreme  in  both  directions,  —  a  false 
liberalism,  and  a  false  orthodoxy?  I  answer: 
the  scholarly  culture  of  a  mind  living  in  the 
secret  of  the  Lord.  Such  a  mind  will  ask  only 
one  question  about  doctrine  and  plan  —  "Is  it 
true,  and  does  it  accomplish  its  true  purpose?" 
Not,  is  it  popular  or  traditional,  but,  is  it  true  ? 
Not,  does  it  gratify  my  taste,  or  help  my  per- 
sonal power,  or  agree  with  a  church  creed,  but 
first  and  always,  is  it  taught  in  Scripture,  and 
is  it  verified  in  Christian  experience?  We 
should  be  more  willing  to  bring  every  opinion 
to  this  test  and  have  more  faith  in  the  self- 
evidencing  power  of  the  truth. 

Then  we  shall  escape  the  subtle  temptations 
to  insincerity  peculiar  to  the  ministry,  and  be 
sincere  in  the  Bible  sense  of  "tested  by  the  sun- 
light," —  doctrine  and  life  ever  viewed  in  the 
clearest  light  of  the  Scriptures. 

You  will  agree  with  me,  then,  that  to  be  a 
sincere  student  of  the  Word  demands  accurate 


74      The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

knowledge,  keenness  of  perception,  breadth  of 
wisdom,  —  the  resultant  of  true  mental  culture. 

Scholarly  culture  helps  to  keep  the  minister 
intellectually  humble.  And  the  humble  mind  is 
closely  allied  to  the  humble  heart.  The  danger 
of  a  little  learning  has  passed  into  a  popular 
proverb,  and  the  only  cure  for  the  evil  is  larger 
knowledge.  Small  and  superficial  knowledge 
of  the  Scriptures  and  of  theology,  and  of  philos- 
ophy that  has  so  much  to  do  with  the  formulating 
of  theology,  not  seldom  accompany  opinions  the 
most  exclusive  and  overwhelming  in  their  claim. 
Men  who  differ  from  these  self-appointed  popes, 
however  conscientious  and  pure  in  life,  are  in 
culpable  ignorance  or  dangerous  heresy.  Oh ! 
for  the  humility  that  comes  from  the  honest 
effort  to  know  more  of  the  truth,  —  and  above 
all,  the  honest  effort  to  follow  it.  Isaiah  de- 
scribes the  true  prophet  as  one  who  has  the 
tongue  of  the  learner  —  not  of  the  learned  (R.V.) 
"and  whose  ear  is  opened  every  morning  to 
hear  the  message  of  the  new  day."  There  can 
be  no  censorious  pride  in  the  heart  of  him  who 
has  caught  glimpses  of  realms  of  thought  still 
unmastered,  and  of  life  still  unattained. 

The  humility  born  of  this  larger  vision  of 
truth  and  life  will  not  have  less  positive  con- 
victions, but  more  Christlike  tolerance,  for  those 
who  see  and  follow  the  same  truth,  but  from  a 


The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher     75 

slightly  different  angle  of  vision.  I  know  it  is 
not  any  easy  attainment:  strength  of  convic- 
tion, with  charity  for  those  who  follow  not  us. 
It  is  easy  to  denounce  the  bigot,  without  prizing 
the  strength  of  his  faith.  The  world  must  not 
lose  its  faith.  We  must  hold  fast  the  truth  as 
God  gives  us  to  see  the  truth;  and  we  must 
grow  in  that  charity  that  thinketh  no  evil. 
''Belief  and  charity  are  not  in  their  true  asso- 
ciations." Mercy  and  truth  in  the  life  of  the 
Church  have  not  met  together. 

It  is  said  of  Dr.  Caspar  Hodge  of  Princeton, 
the  greatest  of  the  Hodges,  that  he  taught  his 
own  views  of  truth  with  the  greatest  clearness 
and  force,  and  that  sometimes  he  would  stop 
in  the  midst  of  doctrinal  exposition  and  with 
new  light  on  his  face  exclaim:  "Young  men,  I 
hold  and  cherish  these  views  of  the  Scriptures, 
but  I  must  tell  you  that  there  are  men  who  differ 
from  me,  my  peers  in  knowledge,  and  before 
whose  spiritual  attainment  I  bow  in  humility. 
I  cannot  understand  it,  but  I  must  admit  the 
fact." 

Then,  scholarly  culture  keeps  the  minister 
from  one-sidedness.  Broader  knowledge  helps 
him  to  healthful  balance  of  mind  and  character. 
I  do  not  state  this  in  opposition  to  the  well- 
known  saying:  "Beware  the  man  of  one  book." 
True  culture  is  not  dissipation  of  energies,  but 


76      The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

concentration  of  them.  And  the  energies  come 
to  the  definite  and  supreme  work  of  Bible  study 
and  use,  enriched  and  strengthened  by  their  ac- 
tivity in  other  fields. 

We  must  obey  the  law  of  change  and  variety 
in  work,  if  mental  powers  are  to  be  kept  in  the 
highest  state  of  activity  and  efficiency.  Mr. 
Spurgeon  was  fond  of  likening  his  study  of  geol- 
ogy to  the  opening  of  the  windows  of  his  mind 
that  God's  pure  air  might  blow  through.  And 
God's  breath  sweeps  through  many  fields  of 
thought. 

Continual  mental  action  in  one  direction  tends 
to  give  the  mind  a  fixedness  in  that  direction, 
and  at  last  an  inability  to  work  in  any  other 
way.  The  study  of  preachers  is  good  food  and 
training  for  the  minister's  mind;  but  it  would 
be  a  positive  calamity  to  any  man  to  shut  him- 
self up  to  the  reading  of  sermons,  especially 
sermons  of  one  school  or  age.  The  mind  would 
lose  its  vivacity,  and  the  pulpit  decline  in  fresh- 
ness and  originality.  Then  the  unchanging 
pursuit  of  a  single  subject,  especially  a  partial 
and  unscholarly  pursuit  of  that  one,  will  take 
a  man  out  of  sympathy  with  his  fellow-men,  and 
give  an  undue  proportion  and  emphasis  to  cer- 
tain truths,  that  will  not  commend  the  Gospel 
to  the  conscience  of  men.  They  will  say  that 
he  is  a  partisan,  and  the  force  of  his  words  will 


The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher     77 

be  qualified  as  lacking  the  breadth  of  true  Scrip- 
ture interest  and  sympathy. 

"Culture  adds  power  to  spiritual  gifts,"  says 
Dr.  Hoppin,  ''and  we  are  called  upon  to  cherish 
broad  views  of  our  office  and  work  as  servants 
of  the  all-comprehending  Gospel.  We  must 
not  close  our  eyes  to  whatever  is  divine  in  nature 
and  its  everlasting  types ;  in  literature,  which  is 
the  spirit  of  God  and  man  embodied  in  language 
and  a  criticism  of  life;  in  history,  which  is  the 
manifestation  of  Divine  will  in  the  education  of 
humanity;  and  in  art,  which  is  the  expression 
of  the  life  and  spirit  of  peoples  and  ages,  and  the 
study  of  the  beauty  of  the  Divine  mind.  We 
should  seek  variety  of  intellectual  culture.  We 
should  not  have  petty  views  of  our  calling,  nor 
confine  ourselves  to  the  mental  metes  and  bounds 
of  a  conventional  idea  of  the  ministry,  but  re- 
gard it  as  the  highest  and  broadest  calling  among 
men  to  interpret  the  divine  in  all  things,  to  teach 
the  knowledge  of  God  in  His  infinite  fulness  and 
perfection."  ^ 

In  the  second  place,  scholarly  culture  has 
relation  to  the  work  of  the  pulpit. 

It  maintains  a  high  ideal  of  the  sermon ;   not 

simply  of  the  sermon  as  an  artistic  production, 

but  as  the  means  of  accomplishing  a  great  work. 

A  study  of  the  average  audience  of  to-day  will 

^  Hoppin,  "Pastoral  Theology,"  p.  150. 


78      The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

reveal  a  condition  that  demands  a  larger  mental 
life  in  the  pulpit. 

Why  are  the  men  of  the  community  so  notice- 
ably absent,  or  in  the  minority  in  our  churches  ? 
Is  the  soul  in  man  less  sensitive  and  responsive 
to  the  Gospel?  Are  men  under  greater  dis- 
tractions of  worldliness  and  quicker  to  feel  the 
destructive  influences  of  doubt  ?  These  reasons 
are  not  sufficient  to  account  for  the  small  pro- 
portion of  men  in  the  average  congregation.  We 
must  go  deeper  than  this. 

Look  at  some  of  the  special  difficulties  felt  by 
the  pulpit.  In  the  desire  to  attract  the  people, 
and  in  the  fear  lest  thorough  teaching  of  the 
truths  of  religion  would  weary  the  mind,  the 
sermon  has  been  made  bright  often  at  the  ex- 
pense of  thought :  illustration  and  anecdote 
have  scarcely  covered  the  poverty  of  thought. 
A  frequent  appeal  has  been  made  to  sentimental- 
ism.  Organization  has  frequently  overshad- 
owed the  teaching  office ;  the  mechanics  of  reli- 
gion have  usurped  the  prophet's  place.  Ethical 
movements  of  thought  and  society  that  called 
for  the  leadership  of  strong  men  have  been  too 
frequently  ignored  by  the  pulpit,  and  so  have 
found  their  material  and  courses  outside  the 
churches.  For  these  reasons  in  part,  there  have 
been  too  many  earnest,  thinking  men  who  did 
not  find  their  needs  met  by  the  pulpit,  and  have 


The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher     79 

been  content  to  stay  at  home.  They  have  not 
respected  the  pulpit  as  the  teacher  of  rehgion 
and  morals.  Strong  preaching  is  demanded; 
not  lacking  in  brightness,  using  all  reasonable 
means  of  attraction,  but  quick  to  read  the 
moral  needs  of  the  day,  and  strong  to  reach 
conscience,  and  rich  in  food  for  minds  as  well 
as  heart.  Preaching  must  command  the  re- 
spect of  minds  and  train  mental  power  in  the 
audience.  The  words  of  Bishop  Foss  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  are  appropriate 
here:  "The  preaching  needed  must  come  from 
men  in  the  strenuous  and  perpetual  process  of 
an  ever  increasing  intellectual  culture  and  power. 
It  is  not  to  be  gotten  by  skimming  newspapers 
or  dawdling  over  magazines,  nor  by  looking  at 
the  backs  of  encyclopaedias.  Nothing  gives  it 
but  a  steady,  hard  effort  to  master  great  books." 
Scholarly  culture  keeps  the  pulpit  from  mental 
poverty.  The  practical  question  for  every  min- 
ister is  how  to  keep  the  mind  trained  and  fur- 
nished. The  ceaseless  giving  out  requires  as 
ceaseless  pouring  in.  The  attractiveness  of  the 
young  minister  for  many  is  not  only  in  his  en- 
thusiasm, but  in  the  element  of  hopefulness. 
He  is  to  be  a  larger  man  and  to  do  larger  things 
for  them.  Alas,  if  the  man  fails  of  this  reason- 
able hope !  Unless  a  man  grows,  he  is  on  the 
road  to  mental  bankruptcy.     He  repeats  himself 


80      The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

and  the  people  soon  begin  to  tire  of  his  ministry  ; 
and  so  he  must  put  the  machinery  in  motion  to 
find  another  field.  Studious  ministers  always 
outwear  popular  ministers.  They  gather  a 
more  substantial  church,  and  the  people  grow  in 
intelligence  and  character.  They  are  equal  to 
every  demand  upon  them,  and  they  become  the 
equal  of  strong  men  and  leaders  in  the  com- 
munity. 

"Besides  attending  to  theological  studies  in 
general,  one  ought  to  have  a  specialty.  Perhaps 
the  best  specialty  to  choose  is  some  subject 
which  is  just  coming  into  notice,  such  as  at  pres- 
ent Comparative  Religion,  or  Christian  Ethics, 
or  best  of  all.  Biblical  theology.  Such  a  spe- 
cialty, early  taken  up,  is  like  a  well  dug  on  one's 
property,  which  year  by  year  becomes  deeper. 
All  the  little  streams  and  rivulets  of  reading 
and  experience  find  their  way  into  it,  and  al- 
most unawares  the  happy  possessor  comes  to 
have  within  himself  a  fountain  which  makes  it 
impossible  that  his  mind  should  ever  run  dry."  ^ 

To  come  closer  still  to  the  actual  making  of 
the  sermon,  notice  the  relation  of  culture  to  the 
choice  of  subjects.  There  are  three  considera- 
tions to  be  held  in  mind  in  the  choice  for  the 
subject  of  any  particular  sermon,  viz. :  what 
has  been  the  line  of  recent  preaching ;  what  are 

»  Stalker,  "The  Preacher  and  His  Models,"  p.  254. 


The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher      81 

the  present  needs  of  the  people;  and  what  in- 
terests you  and  leads  you  to  the  desire  for  its 
discussion.  When  these  three  unite  in  any  pas- 
sage, then  you  may  rest  assured  of  your  work 
and  go  to  the  people  with  the  same  conviction 
that  a  prophet  of  old  had,  saying,  ''This  is  the 
Lord's  message."  Undoubtedly  the  second  is 
the  chief  consideration:  What  are  the  present 
needs  of  the  people?  And  how  shall  we  know 
the  present  needs?  Shall  we  judge  by  the  last 
pastoral  call,  —  by  a  single  pastoral  experience  ? 
It  may  be  a  hasty  and  superficial  judgment. 
He  best  reads  the  case  of  individual  need  who 
knows  the  community;  and  he  best  reads  the 
need  of  his  parish  who  has  the  profoundest 
view  of  the  forces  of  modern  life.  For  there  is 
little  isolation  now.  One  need  is  a  phase  of 
the  general  need.  And  the  broadest  experience 
and  knowledge  will  be  helpful  to  this  matter  of 
spiritual  perception. 

Another  question  comes:  Shall  the  sermon 
be  a  manufacture  or  a  growth?  The  best 
ministers  have  sermons  that  are  made,  but  the 
best  sermons  always  grow.  They  are  truths 
that  have  become  known  by  experience,  and 
they  have  taken  their  form  by  thinking  and 
living,  until  the  time  for  their  utterance  comes, 
then  they  are  truth  through  a  person  —  God's 
message  and  your  message  —  the  fruit  of  your 


82      The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

life  of  the  truth.  I  beHeve  the  people  know  the 
difference  between  a  sermon  that  is  crammed  and 
a  sermon  that  grows.  The  one  shows  that  truth 
has  been  sought  for  an  occasion;  the  other, 
truth  for  truth's  sake.  And  there  is  too  often 
crude  opinion  and  hasty  conviction  in  such 
work.  Too  frequent  quotation  is  the  sure  sign 
of  cramming  and  undigested  opinion. 

But  the  ideal  of  the  sermon  is  growth,  and 
growth  demands  the  broadest  kind  of  mental 
life ;  a  mind,  first  of  all,  studious  of  the  Scrip- 
tures and  also  of  the  chief  parts  of  human  inter- 
ests —  ever  seeking  truth  for  truth's  sake,  and 
so  never  lacking  a  message  for  men. 

Then  there  is  a  close  connection  between 
breadth  of  culture  and  the  style  of  the  sermon. 

The  untrained  man  either  is  always  the  same, 
dull  and  monotonous  in  the  expression  of  his 
thoughts,  or  else  fickle,  as  the  penmanship  of  an 
untrained  hand.  In  either  case,  there  is  no 
essential  and  personal  element  of  style.  It 
requires  familiarity  with  the  best  thought  to 
make  the  best  style.  It  is  true,  men  pass 
through  periods  of  imitation,  but  in  this  way, 
through  admiration,  they  find  their  own  voice. 
The  vividness,  and  richness,  and  fulness  of  the 
language  in  the  best  minds  will  be  assimilated 
and  gain  personal  expression.  Thus  the  sermon 
will  have  individuality  and  variety  of  style.    It 


The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher      83 

will  be  the  voice  of  the  man,  and  will  have  exact 
relation  to  the  changing  thought  and  feeling. 

But  does  not  culture  in  the  minister  make  a 
gulf  between  the  pulpit  and  the  people?  Does 
it  not  give  to  preaching  a  literary  flavor  and 
finish  that  weakens  the  blow?  I  answer,  it 
need  not  be  the  result  of  a  Christian  culture. 
The  first  scholar  in  the  world,  if  he  have  the 
love  of  Christ  in  his  heart,  and  the  Christian's 
yearning  for  souls,  will  reach  them,  and  his 
training  will  make  him  do  it  sooner  and  more 
effectively. 

The  trouble  is  with  the  heart  more  than  with 
the  head.  And  the  man  who  finds  himself 
preaching  to  a  literary  few,  and  thinking  of  nicety 
more  than  strength,  of  polishing  and  refining 
more  than  of  his  message  and  the  men  before 
him,  has  need  of  instant  and  prayerful  self- 
examination.  He  does  not  need  to  forget  his 
culture,  but  to  get  a  new  heart. 

A  word  is  in  place  as  to  the  indirect  relation 
of  culture  to  a  minister's  success. 

We  need  culture  to  conquer  prejudices  against 
God's  message.  We  are  called  to  intercourse 
with  capable  and  intelligent  men,  and  must  meet 
them  on  the  ground  of  their  tastes  and  training. 
Without  breadth  of  intellectual  interest  and 
culture,  we  shall  lose  our  opportunity. 

"  One's  possible  influence  over  others  depends, 


84      The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

in  no  small  degree,  upon  the  range  of  his  inter- 
ests, for  influence  normally  requires  sympathetic 
understanding,  and  sympathetic  understanding 
means  the  ability  to  enter  into  the  interests  of 
the  other  man,  —  to  see  the  matter  from  his 
point  of  view.  Here  lies  the  main  task  of  every 
teacher,  and  of  every  leader  of  men,  who  does 
not  mean  to  be  a  mere  demagogue.  If  one  cares 
to  exert  the  highest  influence  —  not  merely  to 
dominate  another's  choices  —  then  he  must  seek 
such  an  influence  as  the  other  shall  be  able  to 
recognize  as  simply  the  demand  of  his  own 
sanest  and  best  self.  That  influence  is  possible 
only  to  the  man  who  has  sufficient  breadth  of 
interests  to  enter  into  another's  life  with  under- 
standing, respect,  and  sympathy."  ^ 

Intellectual  and  social  problems  fill  the 
minds  of  earnest  men ;  and  we  believe  that  these 
problems  will  never  be  answered  until  the 
Gospel  word  is  given  and  accepted.  Whether 
the  answer  is  to  be  given  from  the  pulpit  or  in 
social  life,  the  minister  is  called  to  be  a  careful 
student  of  such  problems. 

I  do  not  think  it  is  possible  for  us  to  be  too 
well  furnished.  It  is  true,  we  can  afford  to  — 
we  must  —  let  many  things  go  in  order  to  be 
masters  of  the  one  Book.  But  never  let  the 
plea  be  the  sanctimonious  one,  —  to  hide  our 
^  King,  "Rational  Living,"  p.  11. 


The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher      85 

indifference  to  culture,  or  poverty  of  attain- 
ment. 

"If  I  could  be  persuaded  that  the  theory  of 
ministerial  culture  which  I  have  tried  to  repre- 
sent to  you  could  result  legitimately  in  any  such 
drifting  asunder  of  the  pulpit  and  the  lower 
orders  of  society,  I  would  abandon  the  whole  of 
it.  I  would  drop  it  as  I  would  a  viper.  A 
preacher  had  better  work  in  the  dark,  with 
nothing  but  mother-wit,  a  quickened  con- 
science, and  a  Saxon  Bible  to  teach  him  what 
to  do  and  how  to  do  it,  than  to  vault  into  an 
aerial  ministry  in  which  only  the  upper  classes 
shall  know  or  care  anything  about  it.  You  had 
better  go  and  talk  the  Gospel  in  the  Cornish 
dialect  to  those  miners  who  told  the  witnesses 
summoned  by  the  command  of  the  English 
Parliament  that  they  had  "never  heard  of 
Mister  Jesus  Christ  in  these  mines,"  than  to 
do  the  work  of  the  Bishop  of  London.  Make 
your  ministry  reach  the  people;  in  the  form  of 
purest  culture  if  you  can,  but  reach  the  people ; 
with  elaborate  doctrine  if  possible,  but  reach  the 
people;  with  classic  speech  if  it  may  be,  but 
reach  the  people.  The  great  problem  of  life 
to  an  educated  ministry  is  to  make  their  culture 
a  power  instead  of  a  luxury. 

"It  is  not  less  education  that  our  clergy  need. 
It  is  inconceivable  to  me  how  any  educated  man 


86      The  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

can  see  relief  from  our  present  dangers,  or  from 
any  dangers,  in  that  direction.  Ignorance  is  a 
remedy  for  nothing.  Imperfection  of  culture 
is  always  a  misfortune."  ^ 

An  American  woman  of  the  finest  training, 
taste,  and  manners,  who  would  have  graced  any 
society,  spent  her  life  as  a  missionary  in  Africa. 
Yet  she  testified  that  there  was  no  wasted  gift, 
no  unused  attainment.  All  the  culture  of  her 
beautiful  youth  —  music,  and  letters,  and  art 
—  found  their  place  in  the  christianizing  of  a 
savage  people.  So  I  believe  it  to  be  with  God's 
servants  everywhere.  Whatever  is  true  and 
beautiful,  whatever  can  quicken  the  mind  and 
feed  the  heart,  is  acceptable  to  Christ  and  blessed 
to  men. 

»  Phelps,  "Theory  of  Preaching,"  p.  583. 


THE   INTELLECTUAL   METHOD   OF 
THE    PREACHER 


OUTLINE 

The  nature  of  pulpit  work  an  argument  for  Method. 

The  variety  of  pulpit  topics. 

The  demands  of  the  same  congregation. 

The  pressure  of  parish  work. 

The  need  for  the  enrichment  of  life. 
Method  the  condition  of  the  Preacher's  Growth. 

The  test  of  the  early  years. 
Special  danger  to  the  Preacher  is  Lack  of  Method. 

In  the  fact  that  he  is  his  own  master. 

In  the  variety  of  interests  brought  to  him. 

In  the  pressure  of  life. 

In  the  unwonted  range  of  duties. 
The  Power  of  Method. 

It  utilizes  time  easily  wasted. 

It  makes  a  full  man  and  so  an  instructive  pulpit. 

The  moral  elevation  attending  true  method. 
The  possible  danger  of  Method. 
What  should  be  covered  by  Method? 

Systematic  knowledge  of  the  Bible. 

The  religious  and  social  thought  of  the  age. 

Some    department    of    higher    literature    for    delight    and 
power. 
Method  in  study  related  to  Method  of  Teaching. 

Value  of  a  church  year. 

Need  of  a  yearly  outline  for  a  free  pulpit. 

Suggestions  as  to  method. 

Hints  as  to  courses  of  sermons. 
Principles  of  Method  — •  Phillips  Brooks. 

Two  practical  suggestions. 

References: 

Brooks.     "Lectures  on  Preaching."     Lect.  3,  5. 
Tucker.     "The  Making  and  the    Unmaking  of 

the  Preacher."     Lect.  3. 
Hall.     "Qualifications   for   Ministerial    Power." 

Lect.  2. 
Johnson.     "The  Ideal  Ministry."     Lect.  10. 

88 


THE  INTELLECTUAL  METHOD  OF    THE 
PREACHER 

The  young  man  who  preaches  continuously  in 
the  same  pulpit  frequently  says,  "  It  seems  at  the 
end  of  each  Sunday  that  I  should  never  have 
anyi;hing  to  say  again."  It  suggests  the  ex- 
hausting work  of  giving  two  and  often  three 
addresses  a  week  on  religion  to  the  same  group 
of  people,  year  after  year.  It  reminds  one  of 
the  sort  of  apology  for  the  pulpit  made  several 
years  ago,  by  Charles  Dudley  Warner  (no  doubt 
a  humorous  exaggeration),  that  the  minister 
had  as  much  writing  to  do  as  the  editor,  as 
much  correspondence  as  the  average  business 
man,  and  as  many  calls  to  make  as  the  doctor. 
Much  of  the  preacher's  work  is  bound  to  be 
imperfectly  done,  ideals  shattered  by  the  hard 
necessities  of  daily  life;  and  none  of  it  will  be 
worthy  of  a  Gospel  workman,  a  co-laborer  with 
God,  unless  the  intellectual  life  is  kept  full,  and 
this  life  obeys  the  best  laws  of  habit. 

One  of  the  brightest  and  most  devoted  of 
89 


90      The  Intellectual  Method  of  the  Preacher 

preachers  has  said  that  one  of  the  serious  diffi- 
culties of  his  ministry  was  to  know  what  to 
preach  upon.  He  felt  that  he  often  wasted 
much  precious  time  hunting  for  a  text;  some- 
times half  the  week  was  gone  before  he  was  able 
to  settle  upon  his  subjects  for  the  coming 
Sunday.  Here  again  was  a  practical  question 
of  method. 

"I  know,"  said  John  Wesley,  "were  I  to 
preach  one  whole  year  in  one  place,  I  should 
preach  both  myself  and  my  congregation  asleep. 
Nor  can  I  believe  it  was  ever  the  will  of  the  Lord 
that  any  congregation  should  have  one  preacher 
only.  No  one  whom  I  ever  yet  knew  has  all  the 
talents  which  are  needful  for  beginning,  con- 
tinuing, and  perfecting  the  work  of  grace  in  a 
whole  congregation."^ 

There  are  men  who  grow  very  little  in  the 
ministry.  Their  sermons  are  repetitions  of  the 
few  truths  learned  in  the  class  room,  or  out  of  a 
few  books  of  religion.  They  grow  weary  of  the 
ceaseless  demands  of  mental  and  spiritual 
production.  They  allow  the  practical  demands 
of  the  parish  and  the  business  of  getting  ready 
two  sermons  for  the  Sunday  to  break  into  their 
studious  habits.  And  they  deceive  themselves 
into  thinking  that  the  difficulties  are  peculiar 

^  Quoted  by  Mason,  "The  Ministry  of  Conversion," 
p.  148. 


The  Intellectual  Method  of  the  Preacher     91 

to  their  present  parish,  and  so  they  set  in 
motion  the  wheels  to  secure  another  church,  — 
they  join  the  army  of  candidates  that  fairly 
besiege  the  doors  of  every  fair  field.  Such 
examples  —  and  they  are  everywhere  in  the 
ministry  —  call  special  attention  to  intellectual 
methods. 

"  Ministers  are  of  two  classes.  There  are  those 
whose  profession  springs  from  their  lives ;  there 
are  those  whose  lives  spring  from  their  profes- 
sion. The  one  class  is  continually,  in  the  spirit 
of  a  large  vision,  getting  ready  for  life;  the 
other,  in  a  small  horizon  of  a  microscopic  glance, 
is  always  preparing  for  next  Sunday." 

You  listen  to  some  sermons  and  you  feel  that 
they  are  scrap-book  sermons  —  pieced  together ; 
they  are  crammed  from  commentaries  and 
homiletic  hand-books.  There  is  truth  but  no 
consistency,  no  singleness,  no  strong  and  glowing 
life  flows  forth,  and  so  there  is  little  refreshing 
and  fruit-bearing.  There  may  be  brightness 
and  timeliness,  but  no  systematic  teaching  of 
truth.  The  congregations  may  be  large,  and  a 
certain  enthusiasm  for  the  Church,  but  little 
growth  in  the  grace  and  knowledge  of  Christ, 
and  so  in  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit.  Such  churches 
are  not  strong  in  the  Lord,  because  their  leaders 
are  not  mighty  in  the  Scriptures.  Again,  the 
defect    is    largely   in    the    intellectual    habits. 


92      The  Intellectual  Method  of  the  Preacher 

There  is  little  systematic  enrichment  of  life, 
and  so  in  the  sermon  there  is  little  life  to 
give. 

There  is  need  of  a  strong  word  in  regard  to  the 
method  of  the  minister's  intellectual  life. 

The  deepest,  strongest  currents  flow  between 
well-defined  banks.  And  the  mental  life  is  the 
strongest,  not  that  flows  hither  and  thither 
according  to  the  gust  of  the  moment,  but  with  a 
steady  purpose  between  the  limits  of  reasonable 
methods. 

The  preacher  must  have  method  if  he  grows 
strong,  if  each  man  brings  out  the  utmost  in- 
crease of  his  gifts  for  the  Master's  use. 

The  man  goes  forth  from  the  seminary  with 
certain  ideals  of  work.  Like  a  master  workman, 
one  that  does  not  need  to  be  ashamed,  shall  he 
steadily  move  towards  the  ideal  with  increasing 
efficiency  or  shall  he  succumb  to  easy  and  super- 
ficial habits,  and  the  stress  of  distracting  and 
opposing  circumstances  ? 

The  first  years  of  the  ministry  will  put  to  the 
severest  test  the  ideals  of  work  that  have  been 
formed.  They  will  fix  the  methods  and  habits 
of  life.  If  one  does  not  grow  in  the  power  of 
exegesis  then,  he  will  probably  give  up  all 
thorough  preparation  for  the  pulpit.  If  he 
does  not  grow  then  in  the  mastery  of  great 
books,  he  will  probably  get  his  mental  food  in 


The  Intellectual  Method  of  the  Preacher     93 

skimming  newspapers  and  dipping  into  the 
current  literature  of  magazines. 

It  has  been  said  so  often  by  men  of  varied 
experience  that  there  must  be  large  truth  in  it, 
that  the  first  five  years  of  a  man's  ministry  are 
the  index  of  his  future.  They  are  prophetic 
of  weakness  or  of  power.  It  simply  means  that 
they  largely  form  the  standards  and  habits 
of  his  life.  "The  first  five  years  of  my  ministry 
were  practically  wasted,"  said  a  well-known 
minister  of  the  Church,  and  in  later  years  he  has 
tried,  though  not  with  entire  success,  to  make  up 
for  the  irregularity  of  his  earlier  studies. 

The  minister  is  in  special  danger  of  unmethod- 
ical work  from  his  peculiar  circumstances.  He 
is  no  longer  at  the  call  of  the  bell,  and  the  hours 
of  the  academic  life  need  be  kept  no  longer.  The 
laborer  in  nearly  every  other  sphere  —  the 
doctor,  the  lawyer,  the  merchant,  the  teacher  — 
must  keep  certain  hours  and  follow  certain 
routine  of  work.  But  happily  or  unhappily,  the 
minister  is  master  of  himself,  of  his  hours  and 
his  powers.  Or  at  least,  he  may  seem  so;  but 
there  is  a  master  not  himself,  —  the  public 
opinion  of  the  Church,  and  above  this  still,  the 
head  of  the  Church.  But  the  trouble  is  that  the 
day  of  judgment  may  be  postponed.  The  wast- 
ing of  energies  and  the  neglect  of  powers  may  not 
bring  the  sharp  and  immediate  ''cast  him  out" 


94      The  Intellectual  Method  of  the  Preacher 

pronounced  upon  the  unprofitable  servant.  If 
he  is  only  ready  in  some  way  for  the  immediate 
demands  of  the  pulpit,  the  mental  poverty  may 
be  concealed  even  from  himself. 

If  he  is  a  country  pastor,  nature  presents  her 
attractions  or  demands :  the  morning  is  bright, 
the  air  pure  and  bracing,  it  is  a  good  time  to  care 
for  his  garden  or  take  a  drive  into  the  country. 
If  the  day  is  lowery,  it  is  a  good  time  to  go  a-fish- 
ing.  He  will  think  of  his  sermon  while  he  works 
or  plays,  or  he  throws  a  sop  to  his  conscience  by 
leaning  over  the  fence  and  talking  with  a  neigh- 
bor about  the  church,  or  calling  a  moment  upon 
some  country  parishioner. 

If  he  is  a  city  pastor,  there  are  the  more  power- 
ful attractions  of  human  interests.  The  morning 
papers  come  to  his  door,  or  letters  from  an  ever 
growing  correspondence.  These  press  many 
curious  and  vital  questions  upon  him.  He  is  not 
a  recluse,  a  book-worm,  but  open  to  the  voices 
of  each  new  day.  The  World's  Congress  of 
Religion  is  more  important  than  the  Council  of 
Trent;  the  agitations  of  the  unemployed  than 
the  contests  of  Guelphs  and  Ghibellines.  He 
is  a  man,  and  nothing  that  concerns  man  can 
be  foreign  to  him.  He  is  a  man  of  God,  and  is 
bound  to  see  the  handwritings  upon  the  walls 
of  modern  cities.  The  temptations  of  human 
interests  are  very  great.     He  may  spend  the 


The  Intellectual  Method  of  the  Preacher     95 

best  hour  of  the  morning  on  his  paper  or  review. 
Alexander  Maclaren  exhorts  young  men  to  keep 
the  newspaper  out  of  the  study  until  after  dinner, 
and  Dr.  Pattison  adds  the  gloss,  —  'Hhe  later 
you  dine  the  better." 

Then,  we  live  in  an  age  of  organization  and 
social  pressure.  The  church  may  be  a  huge 
machine,  needing  attention  in  a  hundred  parts. 
The  minister  may  sink  his  prophetic  office  in 
management.  Instead  of  a  leader,  he  may  be 
a  boss.  Instead  of  trusting  others  and  show- 
ing them  their  work  and  inspiring  them  to  it, 
he  may  insist  upon  having  his  hand  upon  every 
part  of  it.  And  so  his  time  and  strength  may 
be  cut  up  by  committee  meetings,  and  printing, 
and  all  sorts  of  schemes.  "Faith  and  ex- 
pediency alike  call  you  away  from  these  side 
issues,  that  you  may  have  leisure  and  vigor  to 
spare  for  the  greatest  things  of  all." 

He  is  a  public  man  and  a  social  leader  and 
wishes  to  have  the  largest  influence,  and  he  may 
forget  that  the  best  thing  he  can  do  for  Christ's 
Kingdom  is  to  establish  a  spiritual  Church,  and 
that  this  requires  the  most  careful  spiritual 
teaching;  and  he  may  never  say  "no"  to  in- 
vitations for  social  meetings  and  convention 
speeches,  and  all  sorts  of  extras.  When  Mr. 
Hillis  followed  David  Swing,  he  said  to  his 
people,  "  You  must  not  expect  me  to  be  a  social 


V 


96     The  Intellectual  Method  of  the  Preacher 

roundsman,  if  I  am  to  bring  to  you  a  helpful 
word  of  God."  When  Dr.  Gordon  went  to  the 
Old  South  Church,  Boston,  he  vowed  for  the 
first  two  years  to  say  ''no"  to  every  outside  call, 
and  he  kept  his  vow,  and  now  he  has  the  freedom 
of  the  country.  Dr.  Tucker,  in  a  lecture  on 
"The  Unmaking  Process,"  speaks  of  the  "subtle 
refinement  of  laziness  that  postpones  the  hard 
and  exacting  duty  beyond  the  one  which  is 
easier  and  more  agreeable.  The  minister  has 
an  unwonted  range  of  duties.  Every  day  gives 
a  large  choice.  He  can  satisfy  his  conscience 
by  keeping  at  work  indiscriminately ;  he  can  be 
the  busiest  man  in  town,  and  yet  leave  his  great 
task  undone.  He  is  simply  working  out  of 
proportion.  He  can  do  this;  few  other  men 
can.  And  every  preacher  is  working  out  of 
proportion  when  he  does  not  make  preaching 
the  one  high,  commanding,  inspiring  duty  of 
his  life." ' 

Think  of  the  power  gained  by  method. 

It  utilizes  the  moments  that  would  otherwise 
go  to  waste.  It  is  not  a  plea  for  a  bookish  life. 
Men  are  more  than  books.  And  the  time  spent 
in  friendly  intercourse  with  men,  understanding 
their  natures,  putting  self  in  their  place,  and  the 
moments  of  recreation,  care-free  and  even  idle, 
may  be  among  the  best  moments  of  life.  The 
*  "The  Making  and  Unmaking  of  the  Preacher,"  p.  70. 


The  Intellectual  Method  of  the  Preacher     97 

seeking  of  men  is  divine,  and  play  may  be  as 
divine  as  work.  But  every  man  knows  that 
system  is  the  only  way  to  save  time,  in  the 
sense  of  putting  it  to  the  proper  use,  as  also  in 
the  sense  of  securing  the  hours  for  the  various 
demands  of  the  pulpit  and  parish. 

Take  the  odd  moments  in  waiting  for  others, 
or  the  moments  of  relief  in  turning  from  one 
work  to  another.  A  book  on  the  table  may  be 
mastered  and  not  draw  at  all  upon  the  larger 
portions  of  time.  But  if  there  is  no  plan,  the 
book  will  not  be  there. 

The  pastor  of  one  of  the  churches  in  the  middle 
West  has  gained  a  comprehensive  knowledge  of 
modern  missions  by  this  systematic  use  of  the 
odd  moments.  Method  is  the  only  way  to 
reach  the  many-sidedness  of  the  highest  pulpit 
power.  Results  that  seem  prodigies  to  lazy 
and  irregular  minds  are  the  work  of  methodical 
industry.  Anthony  Trollope  was  a  clerk  in  the 
general  post-ofRce  and  his  official  hours  did  not 
begin  until  ten ;  and  so  he  got  two  hours  in  the 
morning  for  writing,  and  he  trained  himself 
to  write  two  hundred  and  fifty  words  an  hour, 
rarely  falling  below  this  measure.  And  though 
his  literary  production  was  as  regular  as  a 
machine,  his  novels  are  not  lacking  in  the  vari- 
ety and  spontaneity  of  real  life.  Readers  of  the 
Letters  of  Sir  Walter  Scott  will  remember  that 


98      The  Intellectual  Method  of  the  Preacher 

he  daily  set  himself  a  distinct  task  and  was 
unhappy  unless  he  accomplished  it. 

Method  will  find  a  place  for  necessary  and 
important  study,  and  the  accumulation  of  such 
hours  will  make  a  full  man,  and  so  a  suggestive 
and  instructive  pulpit.  A  few  men  may  not  be 
able  to  work  freely  and  forcefully  under  strict 
laws,  but  with  the  majority  such  laws  need  never 
be  chains,  but  a  harness  with  which  to  do  God's 
work.  ''The  old  Dean"  (says  Guthrie,  re- 
ferring to  Dean  Milman  of  St.  Paul,  the  author 
of  "Latin  Christianity")  "is  a  pattern  to  us  all. 
He  tells  me  that  he  is  now  seventy-five;  that 
notwithstanding  this  he  is  at  work  every  morning 
at  seven  o'clock;  that  such  has  been  the  habit 
of  his  life;  that  he  counts  the  morning  hours, 
when  the  body  is  recruited  by  sleep  and  the  mind 
is  fresh,  the  precious  hours  of  the  day  for  study 
and  acquiring  knowledge;  and  that  he  owes  to 
them,  chiefly,  all  his  acquisitions  and  his  position 
in  life." 

Not  the  least  value  of  true  intellectual  method 
is  the  moral  elevation  that  inseparably  attends 
it.  The  preacher  has  made  honest  use  of  his 
powers;  he  has  obeyed  the  laws  of  mental  life, 
he  has  redeemed  the  time,  and  he  can  go  to  his 
people  with  an  open  face  and  a  pure  conscience. 

God's  Spirit  comes  into  human  weakness,  and 
words  that  seem  unworthy  may  be  the  very 


The  Intellectual  Method  of  the  Preacher     99 

forms  of  divine  power.  But  such  help  is  given 
to  faithfulness,  never  to  idleness  and  shiftless- 
ness.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  the  spirit  of  truth  and 
thoroughness,  not  of  insincerity.  And  when  a 
man  has  been  honest  with  truth  and  opportunity, 
with  God  and  himself,  there  is  a  girding  up  of 
his  moral  life,  a  sense  of  God's  favor  and  pres- 
ence. He  has  the  happy  consciousness  of  what 
Lowell  calls  "work  done  squarely,  and  unwasted 
days." 

Method  may  be  a  danger;  it  may  become  a 
slavery  and  not  a  source  of  power.  But  in  such 
cases  it  will  be  found  that  method  has  become 
an  end  and  not  kept  solely  as  a  means.  It  is 
worthless  to  a  minister  unless  it  accomplishes 
the  holiest  purposes,  and  the  moment  it  fails  of 
that,  something  better  should  take  its  place.  It 
is  good  for  our  pet  scheme  to  be  broken  in  upon 
by  the  cry  of  need,  and  all  truth  should  make  us 
the  more  sensitive  to  the  low,  sad  music  of 
humanity. 

Method  will  be  a  danger  to  weak  natures,  those 
that  are  imitators  and  followers  of  others.  But 
strong,  full  natures  will  be  individual  in  their 
expression,  using  the  old  channels,  or  making 
new  ones  as  the  need  may  be. 

What  shall  the  method  be  ? 

It  would  be  unwise  to  lay  down  any  rules  of 
method,   or  any  definite  scheme  of  work.     It 


100     The  Intellectual  Method  of  the  Preacher 

would  likely  defeat  its  own  purpose.  What 
would  help  one  man  might  not  be  good  for 
another. 

But  it  might  be  said  in  general,  that  the 
morning  hours  are  the  best  for  work,  and  that 
a  long  morning  five  times  a  week  should  be  de- 
voted to  Bible  study  and  sermon  preparation; 
that  usually  the  afternoon  should  be  given  to 
pastoral  work  and  outdoor  exercise  (though  you 
must  go  to  men  where  you  can  find  them) ; 
and  that  the  evenings  that  are  free  from  church 
engagements  may  be  used  for  social  duties  and 
special  reading. 

Whatever  be  the  individual  method,  certain 
things  should  be  aimed  at  by  all. 

Systematic  knowledge  of  the  Bible. 

The  first  hour  of  the  morning  so  devoted  for 
five  days  of  the  week  will  make  men  genuine 
students  of  the  Bible.  As  a  single  hour  is  some- 
times only  enough  to  get  a  good  start  on  any 
special  Bible  study,  many  prefer  to  take  an 
entire  morning.  At  least  some  time  each  week 
should  be  devoted  to  Bible  study  more  general 
and  far-reaching  than  the  issue  of  next  Sunday's 
sermon.  In  this  way  a  man  can  learn  to  know 
the  Bible,  —  not  as  a  storehouse  of  texts,  but 
a  history  of  redemption,  the  place  and  influence 
of  its  chief  characters,  the  place  in  the  canon, 
and  the  peculiar  message  of  each  book. 


The  hitellectual  Method  of  the  Preacher     101 

If  a  man  could  thus  study  two  books  a  year 
(and  it  is  not  an  unreasonable  hope),  a  score  of 
years  would  cover  the  most  important  parts  of 
the  Scriptures.  If  you  cannot  do  this  work  in 
Greek  and  Hebrew  (and  most  students  know 
hardly  more  than  will  help  them  to  understand 
good  commentaries),  then  by  all  means  do  your 
exegetical  work  with  the  English  Bible.  Pro- 
fessor George  F.  Moore  of  Harvard,  in  his  defence 
of  theological  education  before  the  International 
Council  of  Congregational  Churches  at  Boston, 
speaks  of  "a  larger  exegesis,  a  broader  interpre- 
tation and  view  of  inspiration,  to  which  it  is 
clear  that  that  which  is  really  inspired  and  in- 
spiring in  the  Scriptures  resides  in  every  trans- 
lation, even  in  the  poorest,  not  to  speak  of  our 
own  noblest  version,  as  well  as  in  the  letter  of 
the  Greek  and  Hebrew."  Then  do  not  give  up 
this  systematic  study  of  the  Bible  because  you 
cannot  work  easily  in  the  original  languages. 

Do  your  own  thinking.  Learn  to  trust  your 
judgments.  Of  course,  you  will  have  the  hu- 
mility and  the  scholarly  desire  to  correct  and 
enlarge  your  views  by  the  use  of  some  of  the 
best  helps.  And  let  there  be  some  record  of 
this  work,  at  least  so  far  as  putting  down  the 
results  in  a  note-book.  Daily,  while  engaged  in 
this  study,  put  down  any  helpful  thought  or 
text  for  a  sermon. 


102     The  Intellectual  Method  of  the  Preacher 

Such  work,  made  a  habit,  will  inevitably  make 
you  a  full  Bible  student  and  your  pulpit  rich 
with  Bible  truth.  Your  sermons  will  not  be 
like  Gratiano's  reasons:  "a  grain  of  wheat  in  a 
bushel  of  chaff." 

This  is  not  an  ambitious  plan;  it  is  so  simple 
that  any  man  can  follow  it  with  ordinary  devotion. 

Next  to  the  systematic  knowledge  of  the 
Bible  comes  the  Religious  Thought  and  Life  of 
the  Age. 

This  means  reading  in  philosophy,  theology, 
ethics,  practical  movements,  and  religion.  A 
minister  will  get  much  of  this  in  reviews  and 
papers.  But  he  should  not  be  content  with 
these.  One  strong  book  in  two  or  three  of 
these  related  fields  of  thought  can  be  read  each 
year.  But  especially  as  a  Christian  teacher  a 
man  is  to  know  the  movement  in  morals  and 
religion ;  this  much  to  feel  the  pulse  of  the  time, 
and  still  more  to  see  to  it  that  the  church  and 
Christian  men  are  in  true  alliance  with  whatever 
promises  larger  visions  of  truth  and  progress  in 
the  betterment  of  mankind.  For  a  minister  to 
be  ignorant  of  the  missionary  work  of  the  church, 
is  like  a  general  ignorant  of  the  forces  and  coun- 
try that  he  is  commanded  to  invade.  And 
there  is  nothing  better  for  a  man's  heart-life, 
nothing  richer  in  its  materials  for  inspiring 
teaching,  than  the  records  of  modern  missions. 


The  Intellectual  Method  of  the  Preacher     103 

And  then  there  should  be  the  study  of  some 
department  of  higher  literature  for  delight  and 
power.  You  may  not  have  the  time  to  read 
widely,  but  you  can  be  the  friend  of  some 
master  mind.  That's  a  fine  rule  of  Dr.  Hale's : 
"Try  every  day  to  hold  converse  with  some 
stronger  and  nobler  life  than  yourself."  You 
can  easily  become  familiar  (so  that  characters 
and  scenes  shall  be  like  dear  friends)  with  some 
great  novelist,  or  poet,  or  historian. 

Then  you  must  read  sometimes  simply  to 
know  what  other  people  are  feeding  upon. 
Under  the  general  preparation  of  reading,  Dr. 
Boynton,  in  "Lectures  on  Preaching,"  gives  a 
glimpse  into  his  own  study;  it  was  written 
several  years  ago:  "Just  now  on  my  table  are 
three  poets :  Browning  —  he  is  always  there ; 
Kipling,  with  his  billowy  'Seven  Seas';  Paul 
Dunbar,  the  first  colored  American  poet,  with 
his  remarkable  dialect  songs.  The  novel  is 
'Quo  Vadis,'  the  latest  work  of  the  Polish 
Sienkiewicz;  the  histoiy  is  of  Poland;  the 
biography  is  the  life  of  George  Romanes;  the 
theology  is  two  volumes  upon  God,  by  Professor 
Harris  of  Yale,  and  'Moral  Evolution,'  by 
Professor  Harris  of  Andover,  which  has  passed 
to  a  third  reading ;  the  homiletic  is  Van  Dyke's 
'Gospel  for  an  Age  of  Doubt,'  and  Mr.  Nicoll's 
'When  Worst  comes  to  Worst.'" 


104     The  Intellectual  Method  of  the  Preacher 

After  such  a  suggestive  list,  you  will  wish  to 
know  how  he  reads :  "  One  reads,  and  reads,  and 
reads  in  such  companionship,  and  finds  that  he 
grows.  You  should  devour  some  books  —  you 
will.  You  should  detest  some  books  —  you  will. 
And  both  processes  will  have  homiletic  value. 
The  truth  is,  there  are  different  ways  of  reading. 
You  read  different  things  for  different  purposes, 
and  the  purpose  covers  the  method.  Some 
books  you  skim;  some  you  study.  In  the  one 
case  your  quest  is  illustration;  in  the  other, 
ideas.  The  first  may  be  a  novel;  the  second,  a 
theology." 

Method  in  study  should  be  a  help  to  method 
in  teaching.  The  Church  year  insures  an  or- 
derly presentation  of  the  great  facts  and  truths 
of  Christianity.  And  the  pulpits  that  are  not 
bound  by  a  prescribed  order  should  be  all  the 
more  careful  to  teach  the  faith  in  its  breadth  and 
unity,  that  the  life  of  the  Church  may  be  vig- 
orous and  expanding.  A  free  pulpit  is  in  danger 
of  being  unduly  individual  and  even  erratic. 
The  present  taste  of  the  preacher  may  be  fol- 
lowed, or  what  seems  a  present  demand  of  the 
community,  at  the  expense  of  systematic  in- 
struction, and  so,  largeness  of  life.  The  desire 
to  attract  the  fickle  mind  of  this  strenuous  age, 
—  an  age  fed  on  intellectual  scraps,  —  has  led 
to  variety  and  novelty,  and  so  to  the  loss  of 


The  Intellectual  Method  of  the  Preacher     105 

thorough  and  constructive  teaching.  And  the 
hope  of  better  teaching  is  in  the  orderly  mind  of 
the  preacher,  and  in  his  habits  of  orderly  study. 

A  thoughtful  minister,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  year,  will  map  out  in  large  outline  the 
special  studies  that  he  will  pursue.  And  this 
plan  will  be  determined  by  his  past  studies  and 
by  the  need  of  his  church  and  community,  looked 
at  in  a  generous  way.  And  his  studies  will  find 
their  way  into  his  sermons.  Not  that  the  ser- 
mon will  be  about  the  last  book  that  he  has 
read.  Such  preaching  is  subjective  and  book- 
ish, and  not  a  living  word  to  men.  But  if  the 
studies  are  chosen  in  view  of  the  needs  of  men 
and  thought  out  and  applied  to  life,  the  ser- 
mons will  command  the  mind  and  conscience  of 
the  hearers.  A  young  man  especially,  without 
large  reserves  of  experience,  will  need  to  make 
his  studies  contribute  directly  to  his  preaching. 
And  all  sermons  would  gain  in  thoughtfulness 
and  constructive  power  if  they  were  related  to 
thorough  and  long-continued  study  of  truth  and 
life. 

It  is  best  to  make  only  suggestions  as  to  or- 
derly preaching,  not  to  lay  down  rules  or  plan. 

The  communion  seasons  may  sometimes  direct 
the  topics;  sermons  leading  to  the  choice  of 
Christ;  and  then  sermons  on  the  simple  truths 
of  Christian  living:.     The  Bible  studies  should 


106     The  Intellectual  Method  of  the  Preacher 

lead  to  short  courses  on  books,  or  doctrines,  or 
duties.  Truth  is  revealed  through  persons,  and 
the  persons  of  the  Bible  furnish  rich  material 
for  interesting  and  inspiring  teaching.  Dr. 
Taylor's  "Elijah  the  Prophet"  and  "Paul  the 
Missionary"  are  good  examples  of  the  wealth 
and  effectiveness  of  such  material.  The  Church 
should  not  be  ignorant  of  her  great  leaders, 
heroes,  and  saints,  and  especially  of  the  modern 
movements  in  missions  and  reform  and  social 
betterment.  Pulpit  topics  are  suggested  by 
timely  events,  as  Bible  revision,  Creed  revision, 
the  Luther  anniversary,  the  Centennial,  the 
spiritual  interpretation  of  the  events  of  the 
year. 

The  volumes  of  the  Expositor's  Bible  are 
worthy  examples  of  series  of  sermons  on  books 
of  the  Bible ;  but  they  were  given  to  congrega- 
tions homogeneous  in  race  and  training,  and 
would  hardly  be  adapted  to  the  heterogeneous 
nature  of  American  congregations. 

The  following  lists  are  suggestive  of  the 
systematic  instruction  and  variety  of  interest 
and  appeal  found  in  the  study  of  two  writings : 
Amos,  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  Epistle 
to  the  Philippians,  of  the  New. 


The  Intellectual  Method  of  the  Preacher     107 


AMOS 

i.  9  Forgetting  the  Brotherly  Covenant, 

iii.  2  Privilege  and  Accountability. 

V.  13  Is  it  Prudent  to  keep  Silence? 

V.  21-24    Justice  before  Worship, 
vi.  1  A  False  Ease  in  Religion. 

vi.  4-6        Dangers  of  Luxury, 
vii.  7  God's  Plumb-line, 

vii.  12-15    God's  Prophet  not  a  Professional  nor  a 

Hireling, 
viii.  4-6        The  Sabbath,  the  Bulwark  of  the  Poor. 

ii.  12       I  Suppression  of  God's  Word  means  Famine 
viii.  11-12  J      of  Truth. 


PHILIPPIANS 

i.  1-11  A  Pastor's  Noble  Prayer  for  his  People. 

i.  21-26  The  Great  Dilemma. 

i.  27-30  The  Life  that  befits  the  Gospel. 

ii.  1-11  The  Mind  of  Christ. 

ii.  12-18  Working  out  Salvation. 

ii.  19-30  The  Mirror  of  Friendship, 

iii.  1-13  Paul's  Master  Passion, 

iii.  17-21  Citizenship  in  Heaven, 

iv.  1-3  The  Book  of  Life. 

iv.  4-7  Joy  and  Peace. 

iv.  8-9  Think  and  Act. 

iv.  10-13  The  Greatest  Secret  in  the  World, 

iv.  14-19  The  Fruit  of  Christian  Generosity, 

iv.  21-23  Sainthood  in  a  Palace. 


108     The  Intellectual  Method  of  the  Preacher 

Phillips  Brooks  suggests  the  only  danger  of 
courses  of  sermons :  "  The  system  of  long  courses 
is  apt  to  secure  proportion  at  too  great  an  ex- 
pense of  spontaneity.  The  only  sure  means  of 
securing  the  result  is  orderliness  in  the  preach- 
er's mind;  the  grasp  of  Christian  truth  as  a 
system,  and  of  the  Christian  life  as  a  steady 
movement  of  the  whole  nature  through  Christ 
to  the  Father." 

And  elsewhere  he  speaks  golden  words  about 
the  whole  question  of  method : 

"Make  your  own  methods.  Be  truly  inde- 
pendent.    Do  what  is  best  for  you." 

"Be  sure  that  methods  come  out  of  your  own 
nature,  and  are  not  the  result  of  mere 
accident.  Let  them  be  intelligent  and 
governed  by  reason." 

"Let  them  be  noble,  for  large  ideals  and  sacred 
purposes,  and  not  minute  conveniences." 

"  Let  them  be  broad,  —  not  narrow  and  minute, 
— with  plenty  of  room  to  fill  out  and  grow." 

I  am  sure  that  we  need  more  concentration  in 
our  study.  Some  of  us  are  strangers  to  close, 
continuous  thinking.  We  need  some  of  Socra- 
tes' power  of  absorption  in  thought.  Such  con- 
centration is  stimulating  to  all  the  powers  of 
mind.     It  produces  more  and  of  a  higher  order. 

Edward  Everett  Hale  has  told  preachers  that 


The  Intellectual  Method  of  the  Preacher     109 

they  waste  time  in  spending  two  or  three  morn- 
ings in  the  work  of  writing  the  sermon,  a  work 
that  could  be  better  done  in  as  many  hours. 

In  closing  I  would  make  two  simple  but  very 
practical  suggestions. 

Finish  the  work  begun.  Some  studies  are  full 
of  half-finished  work,  in  every  direction.  We 
need  the  discipline  and  power  of  completion. 
And  this  applies  especially  to  the  sermon.  The 
work  may  be  hard,  —  you  may  be  dissatisfied, 
—  but  work  on  to  the  end.  It  is  far  more  likely 
to  be  the  Word  of  God,  than  something  chosen 
at  the  last  moment. 

Do  not  crowd  the  work  into  the  end  of  the 
week,  writing  into  the  early  hours  of  the  Sab- 
bath. Some  examples  have  set  the  wrong 
fashion.  Lyman  Beecher  wrote  with  fury  Sun- 
day morning  until  the  last  church  bell  began  to 
ring,  and  was  waylaid  at  the  door  of  his  study 
by  some  member  of  his  family  lest  he  should 
hasten  into  the  pulpit  in  his  study  gown  and 
slippers.  Dr.  Parkhurst  has  said  that  his  own 
method  is  only  a  warning  to  young  men.  In 
some  men  a  fervor  is  born  of  such  preparation. 
But  the  most  of  us  need  the  assurance  of  work 
thoroughly  done,  and  the  expression  of  a  body 
rested  and  quickly  responsive  to  the  immortal 
spirit  within. 


VI 

THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE   OF  THE 
PREACHER 


OUTLINE 

The  Nature  of  the  Spiritual  Life. 
Identified  with  Mysticism. 

The  strength  and  weakness  of  Mysticism. 
Identified  with  Pietism. 

The  use  of  feehng  in  religion. 
Identified  with  Asceticism. 

Self-denial   an   abiding   principle   of  Christianity.     Its 
highest  expression  in  permeation,  not  in  separation. 
The  Spiritual  Life  is  a  rational  state;    a  life  governed  by 
the  mind  and  spirit  of  Christ. 
The  Characteristics  of  a  Spiritual  Ministry. 

Sincerity.     Relation  to  changing  views  of  doctrine. 
Mental  and  spiritual  unselfishness. 

The  special  dangers  of  intellectual  pride. 

The  possible  narrowness  of  devotion. 
Humility.     Temptation  to  vanity  and  the  dogmatic  spirit. 
Cheerfulness  and  Gravity. 

Cause  and  cure  of  depression. 

The  abuse  and  power  of  humor. 
Patience. 

The  twin  elements  of  hope  and  endurance. 

References  : 

F.  D.  Huntington.     "Personal  Religious  Life  in 

the  Ministry." 
Lyman    Abbott.        "The    Christian    Ministry." 

Chap.  7. 
Chadwick.     "Pastoral   Teaching   of    St.    Paul." 

Chap.  3,  4. 
Brooks.     "Lectures  on  Preaching."     Lect.  7,  8. 
Hall.     "Qualifications    for    Ministerial    Power." 

Lect.  3. 
Behrends.     "Philosophy  of   Preaching."     Lect. 

6,  7. 


112 


VI 

THE   SPIRITUAL   LIFE   OF  THE 
PREACHER 

It  should  be  said  at  the  outset  that  the 
separation  of  our  life  into  the  intellectual  and 
the  spiritual  is  a  matter  of  thought  and  not  of 
life.  The  spiritual  life  is  to  rule  the  entire  man. 
"Religion  is  not  a  department  of  life,  it  is  a 
standard  by  which  all  life  is  to  be  measured, 
a  principle  by  which  all  life  is  to  be  governed,  a 
spirit  by  which  all  life  is  to  be  imbued."  Moses 
Stuart's  exegetical  study  of  the  Bible  was  in  the 
highest  degree  spiritual  and  devotional.  Daniel, 
with  the  care  of  an  empire  on  his  shoulders, 
prayed  three  times  a  day,  with  his  windows 
open  towards  Jerusalem.  In  both  lives  there 
was  no  artificial  separation  between  the  sacred 
and  the  secular,  the  spiritual  and  the  material. 
The  relation  of  the  soul  to  God  rules  the  whole 
life. 

What  is  spirituality  —  a  spiritual  life  ? 

Spirituality  and  the  spiritual  life  are  terms  in 
constant  use,   but  are  not  thereby  free  from 

I  113 


114      The  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

vagueness  and  a  certain  unreality  and  even  mis- 
conception. It  is  not  threshing  over  old  straw 
to  ask,  what  is  a  spiritual  life  ? 

It  is  often  identified  with  mysticism,  but  it 
may  be  something  else,  and  is  always  more  than 
mysticism.  Many  of  the  mystics  have  been 
men  of  the  loftiest  spirituality,  but  it  is  a  partial 
truth  to  say  with  the  mystics:  "Religion  is  not 
a  series  of  notions  or  practices,  but  an  inner 
life.  Correct  views  of  truth  do  not  insure  the 
humble  walk.  Knowledge  and  zeal  are  not  the 
greatest  things  in  the  world.  God  and  the  soul 
cannot  be  put  into  the  postulates  of  reason. 
Mystery  wraps  the  holy  of  holies.  But  we  can 
trust  the  imperishable  sense  of  God  in  the  soul. 
We  can  honor  conscience  as  our  King.  We  can 
reach  forth  our  lame  hands  of  faith,  and  call  to 
Him  whom  we  believe  to  be  the  Lord  of  all." 

It  is  the  soul  hungry  after  God  that  thus 
speaks,  feeling  the  eternal  mystery  of  being, 
and  seeking  to  be  real  through  it  all. 

And  the  spirit  of  mysticism  has  spoken  through 
great  reformations,  in  eras  of  spiritual  progress, 
and  striven  for  deeper  and  more  abiding  reali- 
ties. God  is  too  transcendent  to  be  put  into  a 
mere  definition.  Religion  is  life  as  well  as 
creed,  and  the  life  of  religion  is  the  breath  of 
the  divine  spirit,  it  is  the  impartation  of  the 
Spirit  of  God. 


The  Sfdritual  Life  of  the  Preacher      115 

"Closer  is  He  than  breathing,  and  nearer  than  hands 
and  feet." 

And  who  has  not  felt  a  natural  impatience  — 
it  is  peculiar  to  young  men  —  with  the  form  of 
life,  and  would  reach  out  and  touch  the  person  ! 
Rites  and  churches  and  creed,  yes,  and  the 
Bible  itself,  are  only  helps  to  this  closer  and  vital 
life  of  the  soul  in  God. 

"Beyond  the  sacred  page 
I  seek  Thee,  Lord : 
My  spirit  pants  for  Thee, 
0  Living  Word." 

So  there  is  truth  in  mysticism.  The  noblest 
teachers  of  the  spiritual  life,  from  Paul  to 
Phillips  Brooks,  have  had  an  element  of  mysti- 
cism. The  dry,  hard  statement  of  truth  with- 
out a  sense  of  the  encompassing  and  indwelling 
life  is  scholasticism  and  spiritual  dearth. 

But  the  weakness  and  danger  of  mysticism  is 
the  scorn  of  means  in  the  search  for  spiritual 
life,  and  the  undue  trust  in  the  moral  and  re- 
ligious feelings  that  have  more  than  once  led  to 
fanaticism  and  even  to  practical  denial.  God 
not  only  touches  every  soul  that  comes  into  the 
world,  but  He  has  incarnated  His  life.  He  has 
put  before  us  in  clear,  definite  form  His  life  and 
our  true  life  in  Jesus  Christ.  He  has  given  us 
an  objective  expression  of  spiritual  truth.     And 


116      The  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

so,  not  in  dim  spiritual  impressions,  partaking 
of  the  imperfections  of  the  human  heart,  but 
upon  the  growing  perception  of  God  in  Christ, 
depends  our  spiritual  life. 

"The  new  state  of  feeling  into  which  the 
Christian  enters  clings  to  something  richer  than 
itself.  It  needs  an  objective  reality,  which  it 
distinguishes  from  its  own  nature.  Greater  and 
higher  than  all  religious  emotion  within  the 
Christian,  there  rises  and  towers  religious 
thought,  which  points  away  beyond  all  that  we 
have  already  felt  and  experienced,  on  to  a  bound- 
less wealth  which  lies  beyond.  —  Herman. 

Spirituality  is  often  identified  with  pietism. 
But  it  is  more  than  the  condition  of  feeling 
which  is  technically  called  religious.  It  is  not 
in  the  exercises  and  states  of  heart  that  are  pop- 
ularly called  "enjoyment  of  religion."  It  does 
not  depend  upon  the  unction  with  which 
pious  words  are  spoken,  or  the  feelings  that 
outflow  in  song  and  exhortation. 

When  I  say  that  pietism  is  not  to  be  identified 
with  spirituality,  I  do  not  mean  to  ignore  the 
feelings  in  religion.  The  great  heart  is  always 
the  source  of  strength.  We  ought  to  put  more 
heart  into  our  worship  and  into  our  service. 
Truth  is  powerless  until  it  touches  the  affections 
and  will.  "He  shall  baptize  you  with  fire  "  is 
the  prophecy,  symbol  of  that  God-breathed  pas- 


The  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Preacher       117 

sion,  that  abiding  enthusiasm  that  quickens  and 
utilizes  life  in  holy  service.  But  there  is  an 
emotional  religion  that  never  takes  hold  of  the 
deep  things  of  truth  and  character,  that  has  no 
strong  intellectual  grasp  in  it,  and  so  is  transient 
and  variable  as  the  moods  of  men ;  that  has  no 
breadth  of  knowledge  in  it,  and  so  is  often  nar- 
row and  pernicious  in  its  influence;  that  does 
not  ally  itself  with  conscience,  and  so  does  little 
to  purify  life  and  establish  righteousness.  A 
true,  abiding  enthusiasm  is  born  and  sustained 
of  a  clear,  rational  vision. 

Spirituality  is  often  identified  with  asceticism. 
But  true  spirituality  keeps  self-denial  as  a 
means,  not  an  end;  it  holds  that  there  is  no 
virtue  in  self-denial  itself,  any  more  than  in 
luxury.  It  is  not  ascetic  in  body  or  mind.  It 
is  neither  monkish,  nor  puritanic.  Its  senses 
are  not  dull  to  the  beauty  of  the  world.  Its 
heart  is  not  steeled  against  the  kinship  of  nature 
and  human  life,  against  recreations  that  lift 
the  burden  from  the  back,  and  the  joys  that 
brighten  and  sweeten  society.  Perhaps  there 
is  little  need  for  this  caution.  The  modern 
Church  is  not  in  special  danger  of  the  ascetic 
spirit.  We  ought  to  honor  the  heroism  that 
could  turn  from  home  and  mother  to  rocky  dens 
and  caves  of  the  earth,  the  unflinching  allegiance 
to  conviction  that  built  godly  homes  in  the 


118      The  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

wilderness.  The  monk  was  a  protest,  and  the 
Puritan  had  stern  work  to  do  in  the  day  of  the 
Lord.  Each  age  has  its  peculiar  mission,  its 
special  message  to  emphasize.  Separation  has 
been  more  than  once  the  providential  work  of 
the  past,  and  it  will  always  be  an  element  of  a 
spiritual  Church.  "Come  out,  and  be  ye 
separate"  is  an  abiding  principle  of  Christianity. 
But  is  not  ours  a  still  higher  work,  as  it  is  more 
difficult  —  that  of  permeation  ?  The  vital  truth 
of  the  cross  can  never  cease.  Christ  has  not 
been  crucified  for  us  until  He  becomes  the  law 
of  life  in  us.  If  we  know  not  the  spirit  of  self- 
sacrifice,  we  have  not  learned  the  first  letter  of 
the  Christian  alphabet.  "He  who  does  not 
know  what  self-sacrifice  means,"  says  General 
Armstrong,  "is  most  to  be  pitied;  for  he  is  a 
heathen,  he  doesn't  know  anything  of  God." 
But  he  adds,  "What  men  commonly  count  self- 
sacrifice  is  simply  the  noblest  way  of  using  one's 
powers."  Is  it  not  the  providential  mission  of 
our  time  to  carry  this  spirit  into  every  part  of 
man's  nature  and  every  province  of  man's 
life? 

Let  us  not  say  this  act  is  religious,  and  this 
is  secular.  Let  us  make  all  things  sacred  that 
God  has  given,  and  call  nothing  profane.  What 
God  has  cleansed,  that  we  cannot  call  common 
and  unclean.    This  is  God's  world,  and  not  the 


The  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Preacher     119 

devil's.  The  earth  and  human  life  were  made 
sacred  by  Christ's  becoming  a  man  and  living 
here.  This  is  the  truth  of  Christianity  that 
glorifies  this  home  of  ours,  and  shall  build  the 
New  Jerusalem. 

''All  our  senses,  and  tastes,  and  faculties  were 
made  to  enjoy  God's  gifts  and  glorify  Him  in 
their  use.  Summer  fields  and  summer  skies 
speak  heaven's  harmony,  and  say  to  us  that 
they  have  a  message  to  every  open  heart  from 
the  King  in  His  beauty.  And  the  men  and 
women  about  us  cry  through  dim  and  misty 
strivings  !  —  we  can  live ;  we  can  worship ;  we 
have  God's  spirit  within;  teach  us  how  to  dis- 
cern and  obey  this  spirit.  All  the  world  gen- 
erations have  but  one  voice.  How  can  we  be- 
come one?  At  harmony  with  God,  and  God's 
universe?"  —  Kingsley. 

In  the  distinctions  that  I  have  thus  tried  to 
make  in  the  different  manifestations  of  what 
the  world  has  regarded  as  spirituality,  I  have 
already  drawn,  by  inference,  what  seem  to  me 
the  elements  of  the  spiritual  life.  Not  mysti- 
cism, though  mysticism  may  never  be  separate 
from  its  loftiest  attainment.  Not  pietism, 
though  the  most  ecstatic  fervor  is  born  of  it. 
Not  asceticism,  though  the  highest  test  of  it 
may  be  in  the  willing  self-abnegation.  Spiritu- 
ality is  not  primarily  nor  essentially  an  emo- 


120      The  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

tional  state,  though  the  mightiest  passion  beats 
in  it. 

It  is,  first  of  all,  a  rational  state,  a  mental 
life.  It  is  called  in  the  Scriptures  "heavenly 
mindedness,"  ''the  mind  of  the  Spirit,"  and 
"the  mind  of  Christ."  It  begins  in  belief  in 
Jesus  Christ,  the  reason  accepting  the  evidences, 
the  affections  thrilling  their  response,  the  will 
yielding  its  choice,  —  the  whole  man  turning  to 
Christ. 

Spirituality  then  means  a  way  of  looking  at 
life  and  duty,  —  God  and  the  world ;  a  definite 
and  determined  course  of  life.  It  is  connect- 
ing eveiything  with  the  will  of  God,  as  that  is 
made  known  in  the  person  of  Christ.  It  may 
be  called  the  open  vision  of  God,  the  daily  con- 
viction and  conception  of  His  presence,  —  His 
Fatherhood  and  authority,  living  under  the 
power  of  His  "moral  majesty  and  eternal  com- 
passion." It  is  the  glad  and  loyal  friendship 
with  Christ;  it  is  the  constant  recognition  of 
man's  worth  in  the  light  of  Bethlehem  and 
Calvaiy. 

The  man  who  rejoices  in  the  light  as  God's 
greeting,  who  bears  loss  as  the  pressure  of  the 
Father's  hand,  to  make  us  conscious  of  Himself, 
who  takes  duty  whatever  its  seeming  place  or 
reward  as  of  immeasurable  import,  because 
God-sent;   the  man  who  sets  Christ  ever  before 


The  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Preacher      121 

his  face,  aspiring  after  His  perfection,  striving 
to  love  what  He  loves,  and  hate  what  He  hates ; 
the  man  who  is  free  from  disdain  and  exclusive- 
ness,  who  recognizes  every  one,  however  despised 
by  others,  a  social  outcast  or  a  naked  savage,  as 
a  possible  child  of  God,  — that  man  lives  a  spir- 
itual life. 

This  is  the  conception  of  the  spiritual  life  in 
the  light  of  the  New  Testament  and  of  Christian 
history. 

Such  being  the  nature  of  the  spiritual  life,  we 
should  ask  ourselves:  "What  are  the  character- 
istics of  a  true  spiritual  teacher?  What  sort  of 
a  man  does  the  best  Christian  life  expect  the 
preacher  to  be?  The  world  is  sensitive  to  the 
power  of  a  spiritual  life.  Men  open  their  hearts 
to  such  a  preacher,  listen  to  him,  trust  him,  fol- 
low him;  a  man  who  is  pervaded  by  heavenly 
motives,  whose  love  seeks  men  however  un- 
lovely, whose  joy  is  to  serve:  such  a  preacher 
will  find  the  hearts  of  men  all  about  him,  and 
he  will  win  a  large  place  for  his  Master. 

If  the  church  complains  of  small  congrega- 
tions, it  is  a  sign  in  part  of  the  diminished  vi- 
tality of  the  pulpit.  Wherever  God's  word  is 
spoken,  men  will  go  to  hear  it.  But  it  must  be 
a  living  word,  not  a  dull  repetition  of  yester- 
day's; the  truth  of  God  fresh  and  warm  and 
pulsating  through  present  life.     If  God  is  to 


122     The  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

speak  through  us,  we  must  be  open  to  Him. 
"If  thou  wilt  separate  the  precious  from  the 
vile,  then  thy  mouth  shall  be  as  my  mouth, 
saith  the  Lord."  To  be  a  man  spiritually 
minded,  love-constrained,  this  is  back  of  all  the 
conditions  of  power. 

The  first  quality  of  the  truly  spiritual  preacher 
is  sincerity.  Some  minds,  independent  and 
original  minds,  pass  through  painful  experiences 
of  doubt  and  conflict.  They  go  to  their  work 
from  the  training  of  the  schools,  and  the  contact 
with  men  and  the  complex  passions  and  problems 
of  life  suggest  difficulties  not  felt  in  seminary 
days.  They  must  examine  questions  anew; 
they  must  give  themselves  to  independent  study 
of  the  Scriptures;  they  must  work  their  own 
way  along  the  path  of  truth,  however  uncertain 
the  step,  and  at  whatever  personal  cost.  Now 
what  shall  the  minister  do  in  such  states  of 
mind?  The  man  who  first  and  last  is  an  ec- 
clesiastic more  than  a  seeker  of  truth,  will  say 
that  such  a  man  has  no  right  in  the  ministry: 
he  must  have  all  his  beliefs  fixed  before  thinking 
of  the  teaching  of  others.  I  cannot  agree  with 
the  answer.  I  should  be  untrue  to  God's  deal- 
ings with  many  noble  and  useful  servants  if  I 
did.  You  are  in  His  work,  and  you  would  not 
be  anywhere  else. 

You  can  meet  the  difficulties  manfully  by 


The  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Preacher      123 

prayer  and  study.  You  can  teach  the  simplest, 
most  essential  truths  that  you  have  already 
found  precious.  And  you  can  teach  more  only 
as  fast  as  you  have  found  out  more.  The  Spirit 
will  certainly  lead  you  into  the  truth,  and  a 
larger  faith  you  will  find  your  own.  I  mention 
this  possible  experience  to  urge  you  to  abhor 
all  mere  officialism.  Let  words  stand  for  things. 
Do  not  exaggerate  your  own  experiences.  Be 
honest  with  God  and  with  yourselves.  Rise 
above  slavish  imitation,  let  but  one  be  your 
Master;  speak  the  message  that  He  gives  you, 
and  men  will  learn  to  trust  you,  and  bring  their 
own  experiences  to  you,  and  receive  God's  word 
at  your  mouth. 

A  second  element  of  character  to  be  aimed  at 
is  mental  and  spiritual  unselfishness.  It  is  the 
spirit  of  Christ,  who  came  not  to  be  ministered 
unto  but  to  minister.  It  is  the  spirit  that  de- 
votes self  without  reserve,  without  ambitious 
thought  of  the  future,  to  the  soul-good  of  men. 
I  have  called  it  mental  unselfishness,  for  in  the 
intellectual  life  of  ministers  is  the  frequent 
temptation,  under  the  plea  of  a  great  and  holy 
work,  to  be  essentially  lovers  of  themselves. 

There  are  great  intellectual  demands  made 
upon  the  ministry.  The  tranquil,  domestic, 
and  social  character  of  his  life,  bringing  the 
natural  temptation  to  indolence,  must  be  re- 


124      The  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

sisted.  A  manly  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  must  be 
kept  up.  He  will  often  need  to  study  when 
other  men  are  asleep  or  engaged  in  pleasant 
recreation.  Great  books  must  pass  like  iron 
atoms  of  the  blood  into  his  mental  constitu- 
tion. A  virile  ministry  is  demanded,  that 
shall  lay  strong  grasp  upon  the  reason  and 
conscience  of  men,  as  well  as  touch  their  emo- 
tions. Such  a  ministry  must  be  in  the  ''strenu- 
ous and  perpetual  process  of  an  ever  increasing 
gTowih." 

An  intellectual  pride  is  easily  engendered,  the 
exclusive  tastes  of  a  cultivated  class.  And  so 
the  minister  follows  his  tastes  and  seeks  com- 
panionship in  his  books,  or  among  the  people 
who  love  the  books  and  tastes  that  he  loves. 
The  people  are  regarded  as  common  and  vul- 
gar. When  he  preaches  to  them,  he  preaches 
down  to  them,  and  touches  them  at  arm's 
length.  He  fails,  through  his  intellectual  selfish- 
ness, to  have  that  profound  respect  for  man  as 
man,  that  speaks  in  every  act  of  our  Lord,  and 
pervades  the  Scriptures. 

He  regards  truth  to  be  pursued  for  itself, 
without  immediate  regard  to  its  effect  upon  men. 
So  he  is  interested  in  books  more  than  in  lives; 
in  theories  and  speculations  about  the  truth, 
rather  than  in  truth  as  the  food  of  life.  Every 
truth   of   revelation  has  its  practical   bearing, 


The  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Preacher      125 

and  a  system  of  truth  that  cannot  be  preached 
with  the  purpose  of  quickening  and  comforting 
and  purifying  men  is  not  the  truth  of  God's 
word,  but  the  speculations  of  the  study. 

You  must  have  your  hours  of  study,  and  you 
guard  them  jealously;  quiet,  unbroken  hours 
they  must  be:  you  turn  the  key  of  the  study 
door  even  against  wife  and  children.  It  takes 
time  to  follow  the  subtle  trains  of  thought 
through  a  chapter  of  the  Epistles.  It  takes 
time  to  have  an  inspiring  word  grow  into  its  full 
sermonic  form;  and  you  have  an  intellectual 
pride  in  the  fidelity,  in  the  finish  of  your  work. 
Your  reputation  is  at  stake,  and  your  advance- 
ment among  men.  With  this  true  idea  of  study 
and  sermon  work,  yet  over  it  and  mastering  it 
the  principle,  "The  man  that  wants  to  see  me 
is  the  man  I  want  to  see,"  demands  a  high 
degree  of  mental  unselfishness.  To  hear  the 
stammering  story  of  some  poor  woman,  to 
answer  the  cry  of  distress,  patiently  to  stop 
to  answer  the  doubts  of  some  troubled  spirit,  to 
have  the  best  hours  for  study  cut  in  pieces,  is 
hard  indeed  —  it  takes  a  soul  that  is  constrained 
by  Christ-love. 

"If  you  can  meet  such  interruptions  gal- 
lantly," says  the  late  Bishop  F.  D.  Himtington, 
"nay,  more,  if  you  can  pass  from  your  books 
and  writing  table  to  a  poor  woman,  crying  out 


126      The  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

of  the  coasts  of  her  Tyre  on  your  parish  circuit, 
with  anything  Hke  the  look  or  tone  of  Him  who 
stopped  and  Hstened  whenever  Jew  or  Gentile 
beggar  besought  Him,  you  will  be  quite  as  cer- 
tain to  appear  among  His  priests  and  kings  here- 
after, as  if  you  had  finished  out  your  happy 
train  of  thought  in  the  handsomest  fashion,  and 
gruffly  told  the  perplexed  parishioner  at  your 
door  to  go  away  and  come  again  at  a  more  con- 
venient season."  ^ 

Spiritual  unselfishness  was  named,  though 
the  union  of  the  two  words  may  seem  anything 
but  happy;  unselfish  spirit  in  direct  Christian 
work.  And  temptation  to  selfishness  here  is  in 
the  pathway  of  what  seems  an  essential  condi- 
tion of  success. 

A  man  must  have  decision  of  character,  give 
himself  to  his  ministry  with  consecration,  make 
it  his  specialty.  He  must  do  more  than  this  in 
a  general  way:  he  must  concentrate  himself 
upon  his  single  field;  say,  this  one  thing  I  do. 
And  here  comes  the  subtle  temptation  which 
every  minister  feels,  to  a  personal  and  selfish  use 
of  spiritual  power.  Devotion  may  be  blind  and 
exclusive.  The  spirit  of  loyalty  may  not  be 
wholly  free  from  the  spirit  of  idolatry.  The 
attitude  may  be  critical  and  unsympathetic 
towards    other    ministers    and    churches,    and 

*  "Personal  Christian  Life  in  the  Ministry,"  p.  65. 


The  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Preacher      127 

activity  influenced  by  worldly  competition. 
The  great  thing  may  be  my  ministry  and  my 
church.  And  zeal  for  a  holy  cause  insensibly 
dwindles  into  zeal  for  self. 

To  be  known  among  men  as  an  unselfish  man, 
a  true  minister  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  seek  men  not 
for  what  they  have  or  may  bring  to  us  of  honor 
or  reputation,  but  for  their  own  good,  to  do  all 
things  for  the  Gospel's  sake,  this  is  to  have  the 
element  of  spiritual  power,  this  is  to  be  a  witness 
for  the  truth. 

Then  humility  cannot  be  omitted  from  the 
essential  qualities  of  the  true  preacher.  It  is 
opposed  to  vanity  and  self-seeking,  improper 
self-assertion  and  dogmatism.  No  class  are 
more  tempted  to  vanity  than  ministers.  In 
common  with  other  professions  that  have  to 
do  with  public  audiences,  there  comes  to  be  a 
fascination  in  speech,  a  joy  in  the  conscious 
mastery  over  the  minds  of  others,  a  watching 
for  their  interest  and  appreciation,  that  easily 
grows  into  a  false  pride. 

"But  an  hour  ago  a  thousand  people  hung 
swaying  upon  the  breath  that  went  forth  from 
between  his  lips;  their  upturned  faces  offered 
him  that  most  exquisite  of  flatteries,  the  rev- 
erence of  a  great  audience  for  an  orator  who  has 
mastered  them.  We  should  remember  that  the 
religious  orator  stands,  both  in  privilege  and  in 


128      The  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

peril,  apart  from  his  kind.  He  may  suffer  at 
once  the  most  subtle  of  human  dangers,  and  the 
deepest  of  human  joys."  ^ 

What  young  minister  has  wholly  escaped  the 
temptation?  The  people  praise  him  for  the 
qualities  of  his  sermons,  and  for  the  hope  they 
see  in  them.  It  feeds  his  vanity  and  he  soon 
grows  restless  without  applause.  The  love  of 
praise  soon  passes  into  a  love  of  power.  And 
then,  farewell  to  the  simplicity  and  openness  of 
his  spirit !  There  is  no  longer  the  lowly  mind 
of  his  Master.  He  becomes  a  church  manager 
and  politician.  He  is  dogmatic  in  his  preaching 
and  conversation,  brooking  no  opposition  to  his 
plans,  intolerant  of  differences  of  opinion. 
Where  is  the  gentleness  of  the  great  Apostle 
among  men  —  cherishing  them  even  as  a  nurse 
cherisheth  her  children ! 

The  minister  should  have  the  spirit  but  not 
the  ill  manners  of  Dr.  Kirk,  of  Boston,  who 
said  to  the  effusive  praise  of  the  morning 
sermon,  "Oh,  yes,  the  devil  told  me  that  before 
I  left  the  pulpit." 

That  was  a  fine  satire  of  Henry  Ward  Beech- 
er's  at  the  Herbert  Spencer  dinner.  To  a  great 
company  of  scientific  men,  Mr.  Beecher  appealed 
to  conscience,  faith,  hope,  love  in  men,  divine  in 

»  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Phelps  Ward,  "A  Singular  Life," 
p.  274. 


The  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Preacher      129 

nature  and  in  origin.  Dr.  Abbott  calls  it  one 
of  his  great  triumphs.  A  well-known  man 
went  up  and  reached  out  both  hands  to  con- 
gratulate him,  and  said  with  something  of  a 
patronizing  tone,  "You're  the  greatest  man  in 
the  world,  Mr.  Beecher."  ''You  forget  your- 
self," was  the  quick  reply.  There  must  be  a 
loss  of  self  in  all  true  service.  No  man  ever 
preached  well  who  was  truly  thinking  how  well 
he  preached.  "The  harp  of  the  minstrel,"  says 
Ruskin,  "is  untruly  touched  if  his  own  glory 
is  all  that  it  records.  The  power  of  the  masters 
is  shown  by  their  self-annihilation." 

The  spiritual  preacher  should  be  marked  by 
cheerfulness  and  gravity.  I  put  them  together 
as  Phillips  Brooks  did,  because  they  make  the 
balance  of  an  earnest  and  Christian  temper. 
Cheerfulness  is  first,  for  there  are  many  temp- 
tations in  the  ministry  to  depression.  And  too 
many  ministers  yield  to  depression,  and  talk 
too  much  about  their  trials,  and  think  not 
enough  about  their  mercies.  As  a  body  they 
have  even  given  to  the  world  the  impression 
of  melancholy.  Galton  in  his  "Hereditary 
Genius"  speaks  of  "the  gently  complaining 
spirit  as  characteristic  of  the  Protestant  clergy." 
It  must  be  admitted  the  temptations  to  depres- 
sion are  great.  He  feels  the  burdens  of  souls, 
the  sins  of  the  world.     It  is  no  wonder  that  the 


130      The  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

world  seems  to  him  robed  in  sackcloth,  —  the 
race  like  one  great  hospital. 

And  the  minister  is  more  sensitive  than  the 
average  man  by  virtue  of  the  nature  that  has 
called  him  to  the  ministry.  He  has  the  artistic 
nature;  his  work  is  in  the  emotions.  The 
heights  of  vision  and  feeling  have  their  heavy 
price  in  despondency. 

There  are  peculiar  trials  in  the  ministry  that 
touch  a  sensitive  nature,  —  small  salary,  narrow 
means,  fine  and  pure  tastes  to  be  constantly 
denied:  the  very  tools  for  the  best  work  often 
beyond  his  reach.  If  there  is  anything  that 
rasps  and  frets  a  sensitive  nature  it  is  this. 
He  comes  to  hate  the  very  name  and  sight  of 
money.  "That  he  may  be  free  from  worldly 
cares,"  etc.,  is  the  wording  of  the  call  put  into 
his  hands,  and  yet  from  the  first  day  of  his  min- 
istry until  the  sod  is  placed  over  him  —  except 
by  the  special  grace  of  God  —  he  may  never 
be  free  from  worldly  cares. 

"Such  are  the  discouragements  of  a  genuine 
cross-bearing  ministry  that,  without  the  Mas- 
ter's genuine  spirit  of  self-sacrifice,  sooner  or 
later  the  dilettante  pulpiteer  will  throw  off  the 
burden  and  begin  to  seek  his  ease,  or  else  preach 
for  itching  ears  of  phonographic  reporters.  It 
will  require  no  very  strenuous  nor  heroic  spirit 
to  go  acceptably  enough  through  most  of  your 


The  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Preacher      131 

public  services;  but  it  is  hard  to  toil  without 
visible  returns;  to  see  your  most  sacred  en- 
deavors coarsely  handled;  to  find  spiritual 
things  profanely  criticised;  to  spend  wretched 
hours  cheerfully,  among  ignorant,  unclean, 
petulant,  gossiping,  weak-minded  people." 
Nothing  that  I  know  of  will  carry  one  gra- 
ciously and  gladly  through  that  but  the  Christ 
in  the  heart.  And  the  Christ  in  the  heart  should 
lift  one  out  of  the  weakness  of  despondency  and 
morbid  sensitiveness,  and  sustain  a  cheerful, 
hopeful,  joyous  manhood.  You  are  to  carry 
good  cheer  to  men ;  you  are  the  messenger  of  glad 
tidings.  You  cannot  lift  men  up,  you  cannot 
inspire  and  lead  them  to  better  things,  without 
this  element  of  cheer  and  hope. 

"Why  do  you  judge  life  by  its  lowest  phase," 
said  Professor  David  Swing  of  Chicago  to  a 
young  minister  of  a  neighboring  church,  "or 
measure  faith  by  its  low-water  mark  of  depres- 
sion ?  If  I  lose  faith  in  men  in  one  hour  in  the 
twenty-four,  in  the  twenty-three  hours  of  faith 
I  will  do  my  work  for  humanity." 

With  cheerfulness  I  have  put  gravity;  "op- 
posed equally  to  pompous  solemnity  and  ir- 
reverent levity,  to  the  clerical  prig  and  the 
clerical  buffoon."  There  are  men  who  think 
the  secret  of  social  power  is  in  being  a  "good 
fellow,"  who  are  always  joking,  telling  funny 


132      The  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

stories,  turning  every  great  opportunity  of  life 
to  wit.  Humor  has  its  happy  service  in  the 
pulpit.  The  preacher  should  always  be  him- 
self. But  a  pulpit  wit  is  dangerously  near  to 
moral  weakness.  Dignity  that  is  not  natural, 
that  is  not  the  instinctive  defence  of  the  sacred- 
ness  of  personality,  that  is  not  the  manner  of 
an  earnest,  thoughtful,  sincere  character,  is 
not  worth  the  name.  I  make  no  plea  for  dig- 
nity. Let  dignity  take  care  of  itself.  I  simply 
plead  for  a  Christian  manhood  that  feels  itself 
too  high  and  noble  to  trifle  with  life  and  oppor- 
tunity. I  simply  plead  for  a  gravity  that  means 
"that  grave  and  serious  way  of  looking  at  life 
which,  while  it  never  repels  the  true  light- 
heartedness  of  pure  and  trustful  hearts,  welcomes 
into  a  manifest  sympathy  the  souls  of  men  who 
are  oppressed  and  burdened,  anxious  and  full 
of  questions  which,  for  the  time  at  least,  have 
banished  all  laughter  from  their  faces." 

Patience  cannot  be  omitted  from  the  ideal  of 
a  spiritual  ministry.  It  is  well  to  remember 
that  the  word  translated  patience  in  the  New 
Testament  is  sometimes  rendered  hope  in  the 
Septuagint,  and  sometimes  endurance.  The 
patience  that  holds  us  to  our  tasks  and  sus- 
tains us  under  burden  and  trial  is  made  of  these 
two  strands  —  hope  and  endurance. 

We  are  never  to  give  up  hope  for  ourselves  or 


The  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Preacher     133 

our  friends.  We  are  to  believe  in  the  larger  life 
and  the  nobler  future.  We  must  work  with 
this  vision  ever  before  our  eyes;  fight  as  those 
who  hear  the  shout  of  those  that  triumph. 

"Do  thou  fulfil  thy  work  but  as  yon  wild-fowl  do, 
Thou  wilt  heed  no  less  the  wailing, 
Yet  hear  through  it  angels  singing." 

What  if  men  all  about  us  say,  "Who  will 
show  us  any  good?"  We  will  turn  to  God  and 
have  the  light  of  His  countenance  upon  us. 

If  we  have  hope  in  our  hearts  —  the  joy  and 
courage  that  hope  gives,  we  shall  have  the  grace 
of  endurance.  We  shall  hold  on  and  continue 
in  our  place  and  work.  We  shall  labor  and 
faint  not. 

A  weakness  of  the  ministry  is  its  impatience, 
impatience  with  self  and  with  others  and  our 
work.  We  wish  to  sow  the  seed  and  reap  the 
harvest,  to  lay  the  foundations,  and  put  the 
cap-stone  on  before  our  sun  goes  down. 

So  many  men  are  unwilling  to  stay  where 
they  are  the  most  needed,  or  until  they  can 
make  any  appreciable  addition  to  the  Kingdom 
of  God.  They  have  their  hands  to  their  ears 
that  they  may  not  fail  to  hear  the  first  call  to 
a  larger  field,  and  they  even  besiege  the  doors 
of  every  vacant  pulpit. 

A  spiritual  man  will  have  the  hope  to  labor 


134      The  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Preacher 

on  whatever  the  odds  against  him,  or  the  hard- 
ship of  his  lot,  if  he  feels  that  God  has  given  him 
his  place  and  work.  I  do  not  see  how  a  man  dare 
take  the  reins  of  his  life  into  his  own  hands,  who 
believes  in  God. 

I  once  went  into  the  observatory  of  Hamilton 
College  to  look  at  some  maps  which  Dr.  Peters 
had  been  making  of  the  stars.  For  thirty  years, 
through  all  the  weary  days  and  shining  nights, 
he  had  been  untiring  at  this  work,  and  had  suc- 
ceeded in  penning  a  little  corner  of  the  starry 
heavens.  "How  long  will  it  take  you  to  finish 
your  work?"  I  innocently  asked  him,  and  a 
strange  light  came  into  his  face  and  a  far-away 
look  into  his  eyes  as  he  replied:  "Oh,  about 
two  hundred  years!"  He  never  stopped  to 
think  that  one  short  lifetime  would  be  all  too 
short  to  more  than  make  a  beginning  of  the 
hosts  of  heaven.  He  worked  on  as  though  all 
the  years  of  God  were  his. 

If  this  be  the  patience  of  the  man  of  science 
(and  it  is  not  an  uncommon  virtue),  whose 
faith  is  none  too  certain,  the  world  has  the 
right  to  expect  at  least  an  equal  patience  of  those 
who  labor  in  an  everlasting  Kingdom,  and  in 
the  presence  of  a  living  and  reigning  Lord. 


VII 
THE  METHOD  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 


OUTLINE 

Maintaining  the  Spiritual  Life. 

Spiritual  sensibility  the  condition  of  spiritual  life. 

The  very  work  of  the  ministry  helpful  to  the  spiritual  life. 

The  professional  spirit  fatal  to  spiritual  sensibility. 

Testimony  of  Chalmers,  Maurice,  Roberi;son,  Dale. 

Relation  of  sincerity  to  spiritual  woriv. 

Time  for  the  cultivation  of  the  spiritual  life. 
Ways  of  Maintaining  the  Spiritual  Life. 

Devotional  study  of  the  Bible. 

The  habit  of  daily  prayer. 

The  power  of  meditation. 

The  influence  of  nature. 

Christian  labor,  not  efforts  at  self-culture. 

The  simple  matter  of  daily  duty. 
The  Special  Methods  of  modern  times. 

Tendency  to  special  methods. 
"Sinless  perfection." 
"The  Higher  Life." 
"The  Holy  Spirit  for  power." 

The  limitation  of  such  methods. 

The  preacher  under  the  laws  of  the  common  Christian  life. 
The  influence  of  Spirituality  in  preaching. 

It  gives  mental  sanity. 

Sustains  a  holy  enthusiasm. 

References  : 

Johnson.     "The  Highest  Life." 
Gunsaulus.     "Paths  to  Power." 
Gordon.      "Quiet  Talks  on  Power." 
Dean  Goulbourne.     "Thoughts  on  Personal  Re- 
ligion." 
Hamilton  Mabie.     "The  Life  of  the  Spirit." 


136 


VII 
THE  METHOD  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

To  be  men  in  spiritual  life  is  the  word  of 
highest  importance  for  the  pulpit.  Here  we 
come  to  the  climax  of  the  discussion  of  the  per- 
sonality of  the  preacher.  The  spiritual  life  — 
it  is  the  source  and  sphere  of  our  real  manhood, 
up  into  which  we  are  to  take  and  render  of  holy 
use  every  physical  and  mental  power. 

We  have  found  that  a  spiritual  life  is  the 
attitude  of  the  soul  toward  God  and  toward  man. 
It  is  the  open,  sensitive  spirit  towards  God,  the 
vivid  sense  that  we  live  in  His  presence,  the  habit 
of  referring  everything  to  Him,  and  the  making 
of  His  will  for  us  the  law  and  impulse  of  our 
lives.  And  towards  man  it  is  the  fellow-feeling, 
the  yearning  after  their  good,  the  giving  of  self 
for  their  help. 

How  shall  we  sustain  the  spiritual  life  ? 

It  comes  from  something  deeper  than  formal 
orthodoxy  and  churchly  attachment.  It  can- 
not be  gained  by  the  most  rigid  adherence  to 
the  forms  of  sound  doctrine,  or  the  most  strenu- 

137 


138       The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life 

ous  devotion  to  the  mere  externals  of  religion. 
It  is  spirit  and  not  form.  It  is  the  sacred  inner 
life  of  the  soul. 

First  of  all  the  preacher  is  to  maintain  a 
spiritual  sensibility,  to  keep  the  spiritual  senses 
keen  and  true  and  open.  This  means  open  to 
the  truth  and  the  moral  life  of  men,  —  the  quick- 
est to  see  and  feel  truth,  to  see  and  feel  evil. 
We  must  be  open  to  the  truth  in  whatever  way 
God  may  bring  it  to  us.  Our  spiritual  desire 
must  be  kept  strong  for  larger  visions  of  the 
truth,  and  so  fuller  measures  of  God's  spirit. 
Some  men  receive  the  truth  not  as  a  part  of 
their  life,  but  as  accepted  opinion.  They  do 
not  make  it  theirs  by  prayerful  study  and  obedi- 
ence, and  so  grow  into  desire  for  the  truth,  and 
power  to  apprehend  it.  Doctrine  encloses  them 
like  the  shells  of  Crustacea,  and  no  other  mes- 
sages of  God  can  get  to  them.  We  are  to  be 
living  souls,  and  that  means  growing  souls,  and 
not  petrifactions. 

The  whole  work  of  the  ministry  should  help 
the  spiritual  life.  No  class  of  men  have  such 
helps  as  we.  In  our  studies  we  are  constantly 
engaged  upon  the  most  vital  problems  of  living. 
Mind  and  heart  are  fed.  The  minister  should 
grow  to  the  largest  and  best  man  of  which  he 
is  capable.  If  a  shoemaker  who  is  pounding 
pegs  into  a  shoe  heel  all  day  long,  or  a  laundry 


The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life        139 

man  who  has  nothing  to  occupy  his  thoughts 
but  the  ironing  of  two  thousand  collars  a  day 
through  a  series  of  years,  if  a  lawyer  who  deals 
with  the  tricks  and  evasions  of  the  human  mind, 
a  doctor  who  touches  the  diseases  of  the  race, 
often  connected  with  secret  sins,  —  if  such  a 
man  does  not  grow  by  his  work  purer  in  his  pur- 
pose and  more  elevated  and  unselfish,  we  feel 
no  surprise.  The  spiritual  helps  must  be  car- 
ried into  his  work.  He  gets  no  help  from  him- 
self, from  what  he  does.  And  sometimes  such 
men  from  the  dire  necessity  of  their  soul-life 
are  driven  to  God  and  show  finer  examples  of 
spiritual  living  than  the  favored  sons  of  reli- 
gion. A  New  York  clergyman  has  told  of  a 
street-car  conductor,  who  by  shifts  in  his  runs 
was  kept  away  from  home  from  four  in  the  morn- 
ing until  seven  at  night,  and  who  got  up  at  half- 
past  three  that  he  might  have  the  few  moments 
of  quiet  Bible  study  and  prayer. 

How  shall  our  work  sustain  the  spiritual  life  ? 
That  will  depend  upon  the  spirit  with  which  we 
do  our  work,  and  not  on  the  work  itself. 

It  is  a  most  real  temptation  —  the  dulling  of 
spiritual  sensibility.  Men  become  careless  and 
callous  by  handling  sacred  things.  How  many 
times  after  the  services  of  God's  house  are  over 
must  a  man  —  if  he  honestly  thinks  of  it  — 
convict   himself   of  the   professional   and   per- 


140       The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life 

functory  spirit !  He  has  not  realized  God's 
presence.  He  has  not  had  Hving  and  vivid  con- 
ceptions of  the  truth  he  has  spoken.  He  has 
asked  and  he  has  not  desired.  He  is  busy  in 
many  directions  of  parish  management,  and 
becomes  skilled  in  the  details  of  work,  and  is 
satisfied  with  skill  in  the  place  of  spiritual  power. 

In  the  routine  of  work  there  is  no  little  danger 
of  self-deception,  of  exaggeration  of  spiritual 
experience.  We  talk  about  truth,  or  urge  others 
to  duties  and  we  take  it  for  granted  that  we  do 
the  things  ourselves. 

"I  have  reason  to  pray  and  to  strive,"  writes 
Chalmers,  ''lest  the  busy  routine  of  operations 
should  altogether  secularize  me.  It  is  a  wither- 
ing world,  a  dry  and  thirsty  land  where  no 
water  is,  a  place  of  exile  from  the  fountain  of 
life  and  light  that  is  laid  up  in  the  Divinity." 

"There  are  temperaments  naturally  gifted 
with  clear  insight  and  delicately  sensitive  to 
the  bearings  of  conduct,  who  can  speak  unerr- 
ingly concerning  the  temptations,  danger,  and 
aids  of  living,  but  whose  lives  seem  none  the 
better.  Such  a  character  is  likely  to  develop 
special  weakness  of  will,  for  there  is  positive 
injury  in  clear  insights  that  are  not  obeyed; 
the  whole  character  is  cankered  by  this  per- 
sistent failure  to  live  according  to  one's  best 
light,    and    becomes   hollow   and   hypocritical. 


The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life        141 

There  is  danger,  at  least,  that  the  proverb  which 
Paulsen  quotes  shall  prove  true:  'The  man 
who  rings  the  bell  cannot  march  in  the  pro- 
cession.'" ^ 

The  noblest  souls  always  feel  the  danger  of 
the  loss  of  spiritual  sensibility  and  strive  against 
it.  That  is  a  keen  criticism  of  George  Eliot's 
on  the  eminent  preacher  of  Birmingham,  Mr. 
George  Dawson:  "I  imagine  that  it  is  his  for- 
tune, or  rather  misfortune,  to  have  talked  too 
much  and  too  early  about  the  greatest  things." 

Robertson  always  feared  the  subtle  fascina- 
tion there  was  in  an  audience,  —  the  intoxication 
of  power  over  others,  —  and  by  the  most  search- 
ing self-examination  brought  his  own  life  to 
face  the  truths  he  had  so  readily  presented  to 
others. 

A  letter  which  Dr.  Dale  wrote  from  Heidel- 
berg may  have  a  touch  of  morbidness  from  ill 
health,  but  puts  the  truth  in  a  way  we  cannot 
forget:  ''Preaching  constantly  enfeebles  rather 
than  strengthens,  I  fear,  the  real  power  of  the 
religious  affections  and  the  authority  of  the 
conscience  and  the  divine  law;  and  it  is  a 
wretched  thing  to  be  always  conscious  that 
even  one's  own  conceptions  of  what  life  ought 
to  be  are  not  attained.  More  quiet  for  thought 
and  communion  with  God  are  indispensable." 

*  King,  "Rational  Living." 


142       The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life 

"Is  there  no  danger,"  asks  Maurice,  "that  we 
shall  play  with  the  most  dreadful  words  as  if 
they  were  counters,  shall  use  the  names  of 
heaven  and  hell  and  God  Himself,  as  if  they 
were  mere  instruments  of  trade?  Is  there  no 
danger  that  there  shall  be  nothing  answering 
in  our  acts  to  our  words,  that  we  shall  be  more 
grovelling  than  ordinary  men  in  one,  in  pro- 
portion as  we  are  more  magnificent  in  another?" 

Spiritual  callousness  through  routine  accounts 
for  the  professionalism  into  which  the  minister 
comes.  There  are  certain  drawbacks  into  which 
the  ministry  as  a  class  are  brought.  There  is  at 
times  an  invisible  but  real  barrier  raised  be- 
tween the  people  and  the  minister.  "Men, 
women,  and  parsons,"  the  threefold  division  of 
humanity,  alas  has  some  truth  in  it.  A  com- 
pany of  well-meaning  people  out  for  a  holiday 
were  seeking  an  empty  compartment  in  a 
Scotch  railway  train.  "Here  are  seats,"  cried 
one,  but  when  a  clerical  garb  appeared  in  the 
centre  of  it,  they  instinctively  passed  on  to 
seek  other  places. 

The  people  themselves  will  sometimes  turn 
the  most  spontaneous  human  service  into  a 
formal,  professional  thing,  by  saying,  "  Oh ! 
that's  his  business."  And  when  this  natural 
tendency  to  professionalism  in  popular  thought 
is  increased  by  a  lack  of  sensitiveness  on  the 


The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life        143 

part  of  the  minister  (the  very  secret  in  him  of 
professionaHsm),  it  becomes  a  deadly  thing. 

Take  the  sensitiveness  to  the  sins  and  suffer- 
ings of  the  people.  You  cannot  get  used  to 
the  shame  or  dreadfulness  of  it  as  a  doctor  may. 
You  must  not  find  relief  in  the  very  routine  of 
your  profession  as  he  may.  ''The  most  tender- 
hearted doctor  learns  to  suppress  his  sympa- 
thies for  the  sake  of  his  work.  A  surgeon  can- 
not afTord  to  have  nerves;  he  grows  efficient 
as  he  is  able  to  operate  mechanically,  without 
regard  for  the  pain  that  it  is  his  duty  to  inflict. 

"  But  take  the  case  of  a  minister  who  has  to 
listen  to  confessions  of  sin,  such  as  come  unin- 
vited to  every  good  shepherd  of  souls.  No  task 
is  more  repulsive,  and  it  must  never  grow  less 
repulsive.  You  dare  not  let  familiarity  with  the 
details  of  moral  disease  dull  and  deaden  your 
hatred  of  what  is  of  itself  wrong.  Whatever 
skill  you  may  gain  to  deal  with  such  a  case,  will 
be  in  exact  proportion  to  your  delicate  con- 
science and  your  keen,  passionate  sensibility 
to  evil.  If  you  once  come  to  look  at  sin  in  a 
merely  professional  light,  you  will  have  lost  your 
power  as  a  spiritual  guide."  ^ 

How  shall  we  keep  ourselves  from  the  deaden- 
ing effect  of  routine?  How  shall  we  keep  our- 
selves sensitive  to  the  heavenly  influence,  to 
'  "Clerical  Life,"  p.  134. 


144        The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life 

the  significance  of  our  work,  and  to  the  power 
of  the  truth  we  declare  ? 

The  spirit  that  will  transform  all  work  into 
spiritual  power  is  sincerity.  Not  asking  what 
will  pay,  but  what  is  true.  Not,  what  will 
others  think,  but  what  do  they  need.  Not 
being  governed  by  convenience,  and  policy,  and 
expediency,  but  having  such  a  faith  in  God, 
that  we  shall  seek  to  know  and  do  His  truth 
and  nothing  else.  Sincerity  will  always  seek 
the  personal  application  of  the  truth.  We 
shall  preach  to  ourselves  as  well  as  others. 
Like  the  Jewish  priest  we  shall  offer  sacrifices 
first  for  self./  What  has  this  truth  for  me  ?  Am 
I  willing  to  be  all  that  this  truth  is  fitted  to 
make  me?  What  are  the  tendencies  and  laws 
and  habits  of  my  nature  that  prevent  the  action 
of  God's  Spirit  in  transforming  truth  into  life 
in  my  case?  Such  truthfulness  will  make  the 
soul  a  sensitive  plate  on  which  our  very  work, 
touching  as  it  does  the  sources  and  materials  of 
the  spiritual  life,  will  place  the  impress  of  God 
and  His  Kingdom  of  Grace. 

And  such  honest  application  of  the  truth,  as 
we  study,  and  prepare  our  message,  and  get 
ready  for  our  part  in  the  worship  of  God's 
house,  will  make  the  soul  very  sensitive.  The 
soul  will  lie  open  in  its  own  deep  need,  and  a 
reality  will  be  given  to  words  and  acts  of  worship, 


The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life        145 

and  the  truth  that  feeds  men  will  feed  the 
preacher. 

Then  we  must  take  time  to  cultivate  the  spir- 
itual life.  The  age  is  weak  on  the  contemplative 
side.  The  sharp  competitions,  the  intellectual 
and  social  ambitions,  even  the  religious  activi- 
ties, may  satisfy  us  with  doing  rather  than  with 
being,  with  conventionalities  in  the  place  of 
spirit.  They  sometimes  rob  us  of  God  and  self. 
They  have  taken  away  something  of  the  soul- 
quiet  and  the  soul-joy.  The  minister,  above  all 
men,  must  have  moments  of  silence,  of  separa- 
tion from  men,  when  he  feels  the  fresh  dew  on 
the  pages  of  the  Word,  and  hears  the  gracious 
whisper  of  God  in  the  closet.  Spiritual  sensibil- 
ity and  power  come  from  moments  of  devout 
retreat,  from  conscious  and  eager  communion 
with  God,  from  devout  meditation  on  the  reve- 
lations of  God,  above  all  from  the  loving  and 
adoring  gaze  upon  the  face  of  the  Christ.  The 
man  who  rarely  is  alone,  who  rarely  salutes 
himself  and  sees  what  his  soul  doth  love,  who 
is  always  in  the  full  sight  and  hearing  of  the 
world,  can  have  no  profound  thought,  cannot 
be  deepened  and  purified  and  strengthened  from 
the  unseen  springs  of  life.  "  You  have  to  be 
busy  men,  with  many  distractions,  with  time 
not  your  own ;  and  yet,  if  you  are  to  be  anything, 
there  is  one  thing  you  must  secure.     You  must 


146        The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life 

have  time  to  enter  into  your  own  heart,  and  be 
quiet,  you  must  learn  to  collect  yourselves,  to 
be  alone  with  yourselves,  alone  with  your  own 
thoughts,  alone  with  eternal  realities  which  are 
behind  the  rush  and  confusion  of  moral  things, 
alone  with  God.  You  must  learn  to  shut  your 
door  on  all  your  energy,  on  all  your  interests, 
on  your  hopes  and  fears  and  cares,  and  in  the 
silence  of  your  chamber  to  possess  your  soul. 
You  must  learn  to  look  below  the  surface;  to 
sow  the  seed  which  you  will  never  reap;  to 
hear  loud  voices  against  you,  or  seducive  ones, 
and  to  find  in  your  own  heart  the  assurance  and 
the  spell  which  makes  them  vain.  Whatever 
you  do,  part  not  with  the  inner  sacred  life  of 
the  soul,  whereby  we  live  within  to  things  not 
seen,  to  Christ  and  truth  and  immortality."  — 
Dean  Church. 
The  cultivation  of  the  spiritual  life  means : 
The  devotional  study  of  the  Bible.  All  we 
do  to  master  the  books,  their  place,  history, 
persons,  teachings,  is  food  for  the  spiritual  life. 
It  is  a  false  issue  to  array  devotional  study 
against  critical.  A 'true  exegesis  need  never 
be  anything  else  than  a  spiritual  help.  But 
there  is  a  study  of  the  Bible  that  is  more  per- 
sonal, that  takes  those  parts  where  there  is  the 
fullest  revelation  of  God  and  the  soul's  duty 
and  privilege,  that  seeks  thereby  to  have  the 


The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life        147 

sense  of  God  made  more  mastering  and  gain 
the  inspiration  for  duty.  The  spiritual  power 
of  men  does  not  depend  strictly  upon  their 
scholarly  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  and  Bibli- 
cal literature.  Some  men  know  less  and  be- 
lieve less,  but  what  they  hold  they  hold  vividly. 
The  Lord  is  ever  before  their  face.  Here  is 
where  so-called  devotional  reading  has  its 
chief  value,  —  to  revive  our  consciousness  of 
God,  and  bring  daily  upon  the  soul  the  heavenly 
sanctions  and  inspirations  to  holy  living. 

It  is  more  helpful  to  take  a  single  truth  and 
dwell  upon  it  until  it  becomes  food  —  a  part  of 
our  spiritual  culture. 

And  the  thought  of  some  prophetic  soul  upon 
Bible  truth  may  be  as  truly  food  as  our  reading 
of  Scripture.  The  devout  classics  may  be  put 
only  second  to  the  Bible.  And  in  the  list  of 
devout  classics  should  be  found  the  great  poems 
or  essays  that  deal  with  the  problems  of  the 
soul,  and  give  the  divine  interpretation  to 
nature  and  human  experience.  Browning's 
"Saul"  has  sustained  more  than  one  life  when 
the  lamp  of  faith  burned  low.  "And  Tennyson 
is  become  as  one  of  the  prophets,  a  witness  for 
God  and  for  immortality." 

The  habit  of  daily  prayer. 

It  is  not  a  matter  for  one  to  lay  down  rules 
for    another.     We    want    prayer   genuine    and 


148        The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life 

spontaneous.  There  are  no  barriers  between 
the  soul  and  God  but  sin,  and  the  fellowship 
may  never  be  broken,  the  desire  may  reach  God 
anywhere  and  at  any  time.  In  the  picture  of 
the  New  Jerusalem  there  is  no  temple,  —  all 
life  will  be  fellowship,  and  all  service  worship. 
But  we  shall  be  best  fitted  for  the  life  of  the  un- 
templed  City  of  God  by  scrupulous  fidelity  to 
the  habit  of  worship  now.  "It  is  not  safe  to 
leave  the  matter  to  the  disposal  of  a  planless 
sentiment.  When  we  have  prayed  a  deliberate 
and,  if  you  please,  formal  prayer  in  the  morn- 
ing, we  shall  be  far  more  likely  to  have  a  thought 
slipping  Godwards  from  time  to  time,  in  the 
push  and  distractions  of  our  work,  than  if  the 
day  begins  without  some  such  formal  devote- 
ment  of  ourselves  before  Him.  It  is  easy  to 
ridicule  the  formality  of  it,  but  the  chances  all 
are  that  you  will  have  nothing  better  than  that 
without  that.  There  is  peril  in  cutting  loose 
from  the  habitual  and  stated.  Disposition 
needs  training.  Character  is  impulse  that  has 
been  reined  down  into  steady  continuance.  Set 
times  for  meeting  God  help  develop  in  us  set 
times  for  wanting  to  meet  him."  —  Parkhurst. 
Take  the  work  we  have  to  do,  —  worthless 
without  the  ceaseless  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
—  and  the  argument  for  habit  in  prayer  is 
unanswerable. 


The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life       149 

The  soul-quiet,  the  separation  from  the  world, 
means  time  for  meditation.  Meditation  is  not 
revery,  that  sweet  doing-nothing  of  thought. 
It  means  definite  thought,  plan,  concentration 
of  mind.  It  is  the  long  and  earnest  brooding 
of  thought,  the  strong  and  steady  grasp  of  ideas, 
holding  them  up  in  their  relations  and  their 
sweep,  holding  them  before  the  mind  until  they 
become  vivid,  all-possessing  realities.  "All  pro- 
found and  authentic  power,  intellectual  or 
imaginative,  moral  or  spiritual,  is  rooted  in 
attention."  The  "wise  passiveness"  of  Words- 
worth, by  which  he  meant  profound  and  per- 
sistent attention  of  thought  and  will,  was  the 
source  of  his  personal  spiritual  commerce  with 
nature. 

"There  is  no  substitute  for  meditation.  It 
is  the  most  invigorating  of  heart  tonics.  And 
the  stimulation  is  not  quickly  spent.  It  is 
not  hke  a  spur ;  it  is  more  like  blood  transfused, 
or  like  a  medicine  which  is  also  a  food.  The 
aspirant  for  the  highest  life  must  'think  on 
these  things.'  If  he  does,  he  will  find,  in  think- 
ing of  them,  a  zest  which  increases  with  famil- 
iarity. Rare  and  beautiful  is  the  grace  of 
unswerving  steadiness  of  soul.  Mr.  Greatheart 
is  needed  in  every  company  that  goes  on  pil- 
grimage. Reflection  on  the  highest  certainties 
is  what  keeps  the  courage  high  and  the  spirit 


150        The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life 

serene.  Affliction  is  light  and  works  a  weight 
of  glory ;  we  faint  not  though  our  outward  man 
perish,  providing  we  look  at  the  things  which 
are  not  seen.  This  was  Christ's  own  way.  For 
the  joy  set  before  Him,  he  endured  the  cross, 
and  so  we  are  to  look  unto  Him.  A  firm  and 
quiet  spirit  will  surely  be  the  ornament  of  an 
attentive  and  thoughtful  mind."  ^ 

"To  get  at  the  heart  of  books,"  says  Hamilton 
Mabie,  "we  must  live  with  and  in  them;  we 
must  make  them  our  constant  companions; 
we  must  turn  them  over  and  over  in  thought, 
slowly  penetrating  their  inmost  meaning;  and 
when  we  possess  their  thought  we  must  work  it 
into  our  own  thought.  The  reading  of  a  real 
book  ought  to  be  an  event  in  one's  history;  it 
ought  to  enlarge  the  vision,  deepen  the  base  of 
conviction,  and  add  to  the  reader  whatever 
knowledge,  insight,  beauty,  and  power  it 
contains. 

"It  is  possible  to  be  mentally  active  and  in- 
tellectually poor  and  sterile,  to  drive  the  mind 
along  certain  courses  of  work,  but  to  have  no 
deep  life  of  thought  behind  these  calculated  ac- 
tivities. The  life  of  the  mind  is  rich  and  fruit- 
ful only  when  thought,  released  from  specific 
tasks,  flies  at  once  to  great  themes  as  its  natural 
objects  of  interest  and  love,  its  natural  sources 
1  Johnson,  "The  Highest  Life,"  p.  121. 


The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life        151 

of  refreshment  and  strength.  Under  all  our 
definite  activities  there  runs  a  stream  of  medi- 
tation, and  the  character  of  that  meditation 
determines  our  wealth  or  our  poverty,  our  pro- 
ductiveness or  our  sterility." 

The  strength  and  productiveness  of  the  spir- 
itual life  depend  upon  the  life  of  thought 
centred  in  the  person  of  Christ. 

To  many  persons  it  is  a  help  to  the  spiritual 
life,  now  and  then,  to  go  from  the  paths  of  men 
to  the  ways  of  nature.  It  helps  to  break  the 
bondage  of  custom.  The  scales  fall  from  the 
eyes.  And  the  silent  and  beneficent  ministers 
of  growth  are  felt  to  be  the  ways  of  God.  Isaiah 
revived  the  faith  of  the  captives  by  the  sight 
of  the  steadfast  stars,  and  Jesus  taught  the 
certainties  of  the  Father's  care  from  the  minute- 
ness of -the  operations  of  nature.  And  to  a 
mind  oppressed  by  the  problems  of  sin  and 
suffering,  or  confused  by  the  babel  of  human 
opinions,  there  is  healing  and  strength  in  the 
simplicity  and  freedom  of  the  outer  world. 

Like  music,  or  any  great  art,  it  may  perform 
a  spiritual  service  in  breaking  in  on  our  wonted 
states,  detaching  the  mind  from  its  worldly 
atmosphere,  and,  through  its  unwonted  states, 
opening  channels  for  the  Spirit  of  God.  There 
is  a  spiritual  uplift  in  a  mountain  peak,  or  the 
sweep  of  the  sea.     In  the  heart  of  a  great  forest 


152        The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life 

a  man  may  get  a  calm  look  at  himself  and  his 
work,  and  understand  the  word  of  the  Lord  as 
he  cannot  in  the  crowded  and  noisy  ways. 

In  the  story  of  Kate  Carnegie,  the  young 
minister  used  to  go  across  the  fields  to  a  service 
Sunday  afternoon  in  a  distant  part  of  his  parish. 
And  Dr.  Watson  finely  says  that  the  sermons 
prepared  out-of-doors  were  his  best  sermons. 
"The  fields  and  forests  delivered  his  mind  from 
many  of  the  foolish  notions  of  the  schools,  and 
he  heard  the  Master  speak,  —  as  He  used  to 
speak  among  the  fields  of  corn." 

The  man  who  has  the  mind  of  Christ  can 
never  be  absorbed  with  theories  and  practices 
of  self-culture.  The  true  disciple  does  not 
think  much  of  saving  his  own  soul.  He  is  too 
intent  upon  the  Father's  business  for  that. 
The  test  of  spirituality  is  service,  and  it  is  also 
the  highest  means  to  it.  There  is  no  spiritual 
culture  so  fine  as  ministering  to  others,  in  the 
name  of  Christ. 

"For  the  highest  life  nothing  is  more  indis- 
pensable than  Christian  labor.  This  is  taught 
in  the  most  explicit  way  by  our  Lord.  He 
unfolds  at  large  the  relation  of  intimacy  in 
which  he  would  remain  with  his  disciples.  It 
should  be  organic,  vital,  like  that  of  a  vine  to 
its  branches.  But  almost  every  verse  in  that 
wonderful  passage  tells  us  that  the  branches 


The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life        153 

are  in  the  vine  for  the  sake  of  fruit,  and  will  be 
allowed  to  remain  there  only  on  condition  of 
fruit-bearing.  So  shall  we  be  Christ's  disciples, 
and  so  shall  his  joy  be  in  us.  Work,  work,  this 
is  health,  and  growth,  and  life."  ^ 

I  have  not  exhausted  the  ways  of  maintaining 
the  spiritual  life;  but  I  have  spoken  amiss  if  I 
have  given  the  impression  that  it  is  a  complex 
matter,  and  depends  upon  the  doing  of  many 
things. 

It  is  a  simple  matter,  the  step  by  step  of  daily 
life.  We  are  to  trust  God's  guidance,  that  He 
will  bless  the  use  of  natural  means;  that  His 
power,  the  life  of  the  Spirit,  comes  not  with 
our  forced  effort  or  impatient  demands,  but 
with  our  attitude  of  obedience  to  His  will. 
Duty  is  the  path  of  spiritual  life  and  power. 

It  may  cause  surprise  to  some  that  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  spiritual  life  has  not  emphasized 
the  marks  of  what  is  termed  "a  spirit-filled 
life."  But  the  New  Testament  knows  no 
esoteric  religion,  and  the  marks  of  the  Christian 
preacher  are  traits  in  unmistakable  light  that 
should  belong  to  all  the  friends  of  Christ.  The 
Spirit  of  God  cannot  be  distinguished  from  the 
human  spirit,  save  by  its  effects:  the  Divine 
person  cannot  be  put  under  investigation  and 
*  Johnson,  "The  Highest  Life,"  p.  125. 


154        The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life 

analysis  —  He  is  known  only  by  the  fruit  of  the 
Spirit. 

And  while  certain  men  peculiarly  endowed 
may  have  unusual  marks  of  spiritual  power,  the 
New  Testament  ideal  of  character  in  the  pulpit 
may  be  reached  by  the  simple  and  natural 
means  graciously  offered  to  all.  The  conclu- 
sion of  the  question  as  to  the  person  of  the 
preacher,  is  that  the  prime  qualification  is 
character.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  the  Lord  the 
Giver  of  life,  and  He  helps  us  to  live  by  show- 
ing us  the  truth  and  helping  us  to  obey  it,  and 
so  He  lives  and  works  in  our  life. 

There  has  been  no  special  method  of  the 
spiritual  life  suggested  for  the  pulpit.  The 
preacher  as  a  leader  is  simply  to  be  a  marked 
spiritual  man,  under  no  different  or  higher  law 
than  the  common  Christian,  —  simply  an  exam- 
ple of  the  "abundant  life"  that  Christ  gives  to 
men. 

But  we  hear  the  emphasis  placed  upon  special 
methods  of  the  spiritual  life.  Conferences  are 
held  for  the  deepening  of  the  spiritual  life. 
Certain  teachers  are  hailed  as  apostles  of  the 
higher  life.  Ministers  gather  in  devout  retreats 
and  earnestly  inquire  the  secret  of  power- 
Men  painfully  feel  the  limitation  of  their  lives 
and  grasp  at  any  promise  of  larger  and  more 
useful  life. 


The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life        155 

Certain  stages  can  be  marked  in  modern 
times  in  the  conception  of  the  spiritual  life  and 
struggle  for  it;  each  partial,  carrying  its  own 
limitation,  but  each  an  appreciable  advance  in 
largeness  of  truth  and  promise  of  use  to  the 
pulpit. 

For  a  hundred  years  the  doctrine  of  Sinless 
Perfection  was  taught  as  the  highest  conception 
of  the  spiritual  life.  It  was  possible  by  special 
act  of  consecration  and  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  reach  a  height  above  sin.  This  phase 
passed  away,  not  so  much  because  it  was  re- 
futed by  Scripture,  as  disproved  by  practical 
life.  Those  who  claimed  to  be  perfect  were  not 
the  real  saints  of  the  world;  the  saints  were 
the  simple,  devoted  lives  who  were  never  think- 
ing of  their  own  state,  but  how  they  might  bless 
other  lives  —  giving  no  sign  and  asking  for 
none.  "The  nearer  men  are  to  being  sinless, 
the  less  they  talk  about  it." 

Within  the  memory  of  living  men  the  advo- 
cates of  the  Higher  Life  were  making  their 
impress  upon  some  of  the  finest,  most  sensitive 
minds  of  the  church.  It  was  not  sinless  per- 
fection, but  freedom  from  all  known  sin.  Entire 
consecration  would  be  followed  by  complete 
assurance,  a  special  act  of  submission  by  the 
second  blessing,  the  baptism  of  the  Spirit.  It 
was  too  subjective  and  introspective:  far  better 


156        The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life 

to  look  away  from  all  emotional  self-culture  to 
the  great  objects  of  faith  and  service. 

And  to-day  there  is  an  active  propaganda  of 
a  new  phase  of  the  higher  life.  Its  teachers  are 
not  entirely  one  in  their  tone  and  emphasis. 
Some  are  more  subjective  than  others.  But 
the  very  age,  its  practical  spirit  and  tests,  and 
the  tremendous  forces  that  prevent  the  progress 
of  Christianity  and  the  comparatively  slight 
impress  made  by  the  church  upon  the  world, 
considering  the  agencies  at  work,  all  have 
turned  the  thought  of  certain  advocates  of  the 
higher  life,  notably  represented  by  Keswick 
and  Northfield,  to  the  subjective  conditions  for 
greater  spiritual  effectiveness.  The  words  of 
Christ  recorded  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  Acts 
have  been  the  keynote  of  their  thought.  "  Tarry 
ye  .  .  .  until  ye  be  endued  with  power  from  on 
high."  The  Holy  Spirit  for  service,  the  Holy 
Spirit  for  power  —  is  the  reiterated  word  of 
these  earnest  men.  To  get  and  use  the  power 
of  God,  the  Holy  Spirit  stored  in  Christ,  is  their 
purpose.  To  quote  the  words  of  Mr.  Meyer: 
"As  soon  as  you  link  to  it  (the  Holy  Spirit)  not 
you,  but  the  power  of  God  through  you,  will 
repeat  the  marvels  of  Pentecost."  And  another, 
using  the  story  of  Gideon  to  enforce  the  same 
lesson,  says,  "Gideon's  personality  was  merely 
a  suit  of  clothes  which  God  wore  that  day  in 


The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life        157 

achieving  the  tremendous  victory  of  His  people." 
The  promise  of  them  all  is  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
is  given  for  power.  And  in  the  earnest  desire 
to  get  this  power,  certain  definite  rules  are  laid 
down,  —  perhaps  better  say,  certain  definite 
conditions  are  insisted  upon.  Using  physical 
analogies,  certain  acts,  as  casting  out  all  known 
sin,  complete  surrender  to  the  will  of  God  — 
under  one  teacher  these  are  developed  into 
seven  definite  stages,  before  there  can  be  the 
infilling  and  so  the  complete  use  of  the  person 
by  the  Holy  Spirit. 

The  statement  of  such  methods  suggests  their 
limitations. 

In  the  interpretation  of  Scripture  they 
sometimes  combine  the  hardest  literalism  of 
figurative  writings  with  the  most  lawless  spirit- 
ualizing of  the  plain  statements. 

In  the  desire  for  power,  they  limit  the  use  of 
truth  and  personality  to  the  Scripture,  ignoring 
the  wealth  of  human  interest  and  spiritual 
lesson  in  literature  and  art  and  human  enter- 
prise, and  the  pulpit  as  the  noblest  inter- 
preter and  educator  of  life. 

In  aiming  at  the  conscious  power  of  the  Spirit 
they  are  teaching  an  impossible  psychology  and 
ignoring  the  variety  and  limitation  of  personality. 
God  and  man  work  together.  We  are  ever 
working   out   what   God   is   working   in.     The 


158       The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life 

Spirit  of  God  is  ever  giving  the  thought  and 
impulse  that  we  are  trying  to  carry  out  in  our 
lives.  The  fruit  of  the  spirit  is  ripened  by 
sudden  and  tropical  showers,  and  again,  and  far 
oftener,  by  still,  dewy  nights  and  long  summer 
days. 

Only  a  few  natures,  men  of  peculiar  tempera- 
ment and  experience,  can  ever  expect  the  sudden 
disclosures  of  spiritual  truth,  the  sudden  in- 
rushing  of  spiritual  power;  the  vast  majority 
of  men  in  the  pulpit  must  take  the  common 
paths  of  the  spiritual  life,  fixing  the  thought 
upon  the  things  of  Christ,  setting  the  affections 
upon  things  above,  using  their  wills  in  the  daily 
choice  of  the  mind  of  Christ;  conscientious 
study,  prayerful  obedience,  loving  service  of 
men,  —  then  a  man's  life  will  certainly  grow  in 
the  grace  and  knowledge  of  Christ,  and  he  shall 
have  the  largest  life  and  power  possible  for  him. 

We  are  to  be  grateful  for  the  new  emphasis 
upon  service,  as  marking  the  larger  conception 
of  the  spiritual  life,  and  we  are  to  take  to  heart 
the  lessons  so  earnestly  and  so  persuasively 
repeated,  that  the  Spirit  can  make  the  largest 
use  of  a  life  only  that  hates  the  evil  and  loves 
the  good  and  makes  the  Kingdom  of  God  the 
supreme  choice.  Life  is  not  for  power,  but  power 
is  the  issue  of  life. 

An  old  Scotch  minister  touched  the  heart  of 


The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life        159 

the  matter,  when  he  said  in  a  charge  to  a  young 
man: 

"The  great  purpose  for  which  a  minister  is 
settled  in  a  parish  is  not  to  cultivate  scholar- 
ship, or  to  visit  the  people  during  the  week,  or 
even  to  preach  to  them  on  Sunday ;  but  it  is  to 
live  among  them  as  a  good  man,  whose  mere 
presence  is  a  demonstration  that  cannot  be 
gainsaid,  that  there  is  a  life  possible  on  earth 
which  is  fed  from  no  earthly  source,  and  that 
the  things  spoken  of  in  church  on  Sundays  are 
realities." 

I  express  our  deepest  need  when  I  say  we 
are  to  strive  to  be  men  in  spiritual  life. 

Spirituality  will  give  mental  sanity.  It 
pierces  through  the  accidental  and  human  to  the 
essential,  the  universal,  and  the  eternal.  It 
can  neither  be  indifferent  nor  intolerant.  With 
broader  vision  is  simpler  and  stronger  faith. 
It  grows  not  alone 

"...  In  power 
And  knowledge,  but  by  year  and  hour 
In  reverence  and  in  charity." 

Spirituality  will  sustain  a  holy  enthusiasm 
for  our  work  and  for  humanity.  We  must 
catch  the  charm  and  inspiration  of  a  higher 
world  than  self,  or  we  shall  succumb  to  the  hard 
routine  of  our  task.     We  must  catch  the  vision 


160       The  Method  of  the  Spiritual  Life 

of  God's  thought  of  man,  if  we  are  to  be  saved 
from  the  estimates  of  society,  and  the  narrow- 
ness of  cultured  taste,  and  be  the  servants  of 
mankind.  We  must  hve  on  the  ideal  side,  if 
we  are  to  be  masters  of  truth  and  masters  of 
human  hearts.  The  powers  of  the  heavenly 
world  were  felt  in  every  act  of  our  Lord.  "Jesus, 
knowing  that  he  was  come  from  God  and  went 
to  God,  took  a  towel  and  girded  himself," 
and  ministered  in  lowliest  office.  The  whole 
arch  of  heaven  bends  over  every  act  of  holy 
service. 

We  are  to  be  men  in  spiritual  life,  not  an- 
gels ;  in  touch  with  men,  not  above  them.  Not 
preaching  an  isolated  and  repellent  piety,  but 
bringing  the  world  of  heavenly  ideals  and  inspi- 
rations into  the  life  of  the  common  day.  The 
words  of  Kipling  apply  to  the  preacher  as  well 
as  to  every  other  genuine  toiler: 

"Go  to  your  work  and  be  strong,  halting  not  in  your 

ways, 
Balking  the    end  half-won,  for    an  instant  dole  of 

praise. 
Stand  to  your  work  and  be  wise,  certain  of  word  and 

pen, 
Who  are  neither  children  nor  gods,  but  men  in  a 

world  of  men." 


PART  II 
THE   MESSAGE 


"The  word  had  breath,  and  wrought 
With  human  hands  the  creed  of  creeds, 
In  loveUness  of  perfect  deeds, 
More  strong  than  all  poetic  thought." 

—  Tennyson. 


162 


VIII 
THE  AUTHORITY  OF    THE   MESSAGE 


OUTLINE 

The  Preacher  the  man  with  a  Message. 
Definition  of  Authority  in  preaching. 

The  nature  of  Authority  seen  in  a  study  of  the  Prophet's  spirit. 
Comparison  of  the  priestly  and  prophetic  functions  in  re- 
ligion. 
The  prophets  taught  the  simplicity,  the  practical  and  un- 
selfish nature  of  religion. 
They  were  the  great  interpreters  of  life,  the  life  of  God  and 

man. 
The  prophetic  spirit  an  abiding  spirit  in  the  church. 
The  preacher  essentially  a  prophet  —  the  Christian  proph- 
ets. 
The  prophet's  spirit  connected  with  a  great  experience. 
The  authority  of  the  word  lies  in  the  experience  of  the  soul. 
Examples  of  prophetic  experience. 
The  ways  of  getting  the  Authority  of  Experience. 
The  relation  between  Objective  and  Subjective  Authority  in 
the  Message;  between  Christ  and  the  Preacher's  expe- 


Referencks: 

Abbott.     "The  Christian  Ministry."     Lect.  3. 
Horton.     "Verbum  Dei."     Lect.  2-7. 
Watson.     "God's  Message  to  the  Hiunan  Soul." 

Lect.  4. 
Greer.     "The  Preacher  and  his  Place."     Lect.  3. 
Smith.     "Modern  Criticism  and  the  Preaching 

of  the  Old  Testament."     Lect.  7. 


164 


VIII 

THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  MESSAGE,  OR 
THE   PROPHET'S   SPIRIT 

The  distinguishing  mark  of  the  preacher  is 
that  he  is  a  man  with  a  message.  He  must  have 
a  word  that  he  has  thought  out  and  felt  and 
appropriated  to  his  own  Ufe,  so  that  it  has 
become  his  word,  the  expression  of  his  hfe ;  and 
it  must  be  a  message  he  feels  so  important  for  the 
life  of  men,  that  he  must  speak  it  out.  A  real 
message  of  God  is  a  dominating  and  impelling 
power.  It  must  be  spoken  whether  men  hear  or 
forbear.  Without  the  sense  of  message  a  man 
had  better  not  speak  at  all.  Whatever  be  his 
own  choice  or  the  ordination  of  human  hands, 
without  the  sense  of  message  he  is  not  chosen 
of  God  to  proclaim  His  word.  Without  the 
sense  of  message,  he  lacks  the  sustaining  impulse 
of  his  vocation  and  the  mastery  over  the  minds 
and  hearts  of  men. 

What  gives  to  the  preacher's  word  a  living 
and  life-giving  power?     Is  it  the  power  of  an 

165 


166  The  Authority  of  the  Message 

organization  of  which  he  is  an  accredited  mem- 
ber ?  Is  it  the  power  of  a  body  of  writings  held 
by  the  Church  to  give  the  Word  of  God,  and  of 
which  the  preacher  is  thought  to  be  the  inter- 
preter ?  Is  the  authority  of  his  message  exter- 
nal to  himself,  so  that  without  regard  to  his 
personality,  his  character  or  convictions,  his 
message  produces  its  divine  effect?  Or  is  it 
inseparable  from  his  own  person,  not  external 
but  inner? 

Authority  is  not  in  the  claim  or  the  right  to 
command  the  obedience  of  men,  but  in  the  in- 
fluence that  lays  hold  of  other  lives,  in  that 
which  finds  men,  to  use  the  significant  word  of 
Coleridge. 

"The  real  secret  of  our  authority  must  lie  in 
our  own  consciousness  of  sin  forgiven  and  life 
imparted  by  an  ever-present  God,  and  in  our 
power  to  reproduce  in  other  souls  the  life  which 
God  has  produced  in  our  own."  ^ 

Whence  comes  the  authority  of  our  message? 
We  may  find  an  answer  in  the  study  of  the 
prophet's  spirit. 

There  are  two  functions  in  religion,  the  priestly 
and  the  prophetic.  The  priestly  has  to  do  with 
the  forms  of  life,  the  prophetic  with  its  spirit. 

We  cannot  ignore  or  despise  the  priestly 
function    in    religion.     Life    must    have    form. 

1  Abbott,  "Christian  Ministry,"  p.  106. 


The  Authority  of  the  Message  167 

If  men  think  upon  religious  truth,  their  ideas 
must  take  clear,  consistent  statement.  Greed 
is  the  form  of  doctrine.  The  creeds  mark  the 
thought  of  the  Church,  hold  the  mind  to  essential 
truth  amid  conflicting  opinion,  and  are  the  steps 
by  which  the  understanding  passes  on  in  its 
apprehension  of  God. 

If  men  worship,  they  must  have  their  fixed 
places  and  times  and  rites.  Nothing  should  be 
so  free  and  spontaneous  as  prayer.  But  the 
life  that  has  no  fixed  habit  of  prayer  will  at  last 
lose  all  desire  for  prayer. 

If  men  hold  great  truths  in  common  and 
worship  together  and  cooperate  for  a  common 
end,  they  must  have  associated  life.  The  organ- 
ization of  the  church  is  as  much  a  law  of  life 
as  the  functional  organization  of  the  human 
body.  The  priestly  function  conducts  and 
sustains  these  essential  forms  of  life.  Religion 
is  partly  habit.  The  child  that  gets  by  heart 
the  exact  form  of  Scripture  words  has  the  lines 
of  habit  formed  along  which  the  Holy  Spirit 
may  flash  the  meaning  and  life  of  the  truth  itself. 
The  sense  of  God  in  His  world,  the  fields  and 
the  forests  and  the  thousand  living  things,  all 
praising  God,  will  come  permanently,  as  a  habit 
of  thought,  to  the  man  who  remembers  the 
Sabbath  and  forgets  not  to  make  his  way  to 
God's  house. 


168  The  Authority  of  the  Message 

These  earthly  names  that  now  divide  us, 
Luther  and  Calvin  and  Wesley,  and  all  the  rest, 
will  be  forgotten  or  fade  away  in  the  light  of  the 
one  name  above  every  other.  But  God  has 
spoken  through  these  human  teachers,  there  has 
been  a  providential  emphasis  upon  doctrine  or 
polity  or  endeavor;  and  we  shall  soonest  reach 
the  charity  and  life  of  the  perfected  kingdom 
by  loyalty  to  the  truth  and  opportunity  within 
our  own  reach. 

There  is  power  in  methodical  piety.  The 
training  of  a  life  begins  by  rule,  and  we 
only  reach  the  liberty  of  the  spirit  by  habitual 
obedience. 

But  the  priestly  function,  apart  from  the  pro- 
phetic, cannot  produce  and  sustain  the  hfe  of 
God  in  the  soul.  It  tends  to  magnify  the  form 
and  forget  the  spirit.  It  would  test  life  by  its 
Shibboleths,  piety  by  its  rituals,  and  loyalty  to 
the  Kingdom  by  zeal  for  a  church.  Over- 
emphasis upon  form  has  always  the  temptation 
to  unreality.  There  may  be  religiosity  with 
little  vital  religion. 

The  priestly  function  dwells  upon  that  ob- 
jective truth  and  form,  connected  with  the  be- 
ginnings of  spiritual  life,  and  not  enough  upon 
the  truths  that  form  and  perfect  character. 
It  may  make  religion  an  insurance  policy  rather 
than  the  culture  of  the  soul.     It  separates  life 


The  Authority  of  the  Message  169 

into  secular  and  sacred.  It  is  punctilious  about 
so-called  religious  duties,  —  feels  safe  if  they 
are  performed,  ''tithes  the  mint,  anise,  and 
cummin,"  and  is  careless  of  the  weightier  mat- 
ters, "judgment,  mercy,  and  faith."  It  denies 
God  by  practically  shutting  Him  out  of  a  large 
part  of  life.  He  is  God  of  the  hills,  of  holy 
moments  and  places,  but  not  of  the  valleys, 
where  men  toil  and  are  tried  and  suffer. 

The  priestly  spirit  has  often  been  proud  of 
God's  favor,  and  forgot  the  ministry  of  God's 
grace.  Spiritual  pride  and  class  and  race 
pride  have  been  strangely  blended.  Trusting 
in  God's  election,  claiming  special  privilege, 
it  has  forgotten  that  election  is  for  service,  — 
the  few  chosen  that  they  may  be  the  world's 
helpers.  Its  vision  has  sometimes  been  shut 
up  to  self,  narrowly  individual,  and  indifferent 
to  the  multitudes. 

Formality,  superficiality,  and  exclusiveness  have 
been  the  evils  that  have  grown  up  where  the 
priest  was  the  sole  leader  of  religion. 

And  so  God  has  raised  up  the  prophets  to 
correct  priestly  tendencies  and  to  give  the 
balance  of  truth  and  life. 

The  prophets  ever  taught  the  simplicity  and 
spirituality  of  religion.  They  interpreted  the 
meaning  of  temple  and  sacrifice  and  law  and 
ritual.    They  were  ever  breaking  through  the 


170  The  Authority  of  the  Message 

crust  of  behavior  and  finding  the  heart  and 
sustaining  its  God-given  principles  and  motives. 

They  taught  the  practical  nature  of  religion. 
Sacrifice  was  good,  but  mercy  and  truth  were 
better.  Worship  was  to  make  life  religious. 
And  if  life  were  not  changed,  if  it  were  cold  and 
selfish  and  sensual,  the  very  worship  was  a 
mockery. 

The  prophets  taught  the  unselfish  nature  of 
religion.  It  was  not  simply  for  the  soul's  own 
culture,  for  individual  favor  and  blessing  of  the 
Holy  One,  but  that  the  family  and  the  commu- 
nity might  be  sweetened  and  enriched.  They 
broke  through  race  pride  and  prejudice,  and 
taught  the  truths  of  humanity,  gave  glimpses 
of  the  wants  and  hopes  of  mankind,  pleaded 
with  Jerusalem  for  the  sake  of  the  world. 

They  are  the  teachers  of  the  Messiah :  first  a 
national  hope,  the  day  of  renewed  and  enlarged 
national  life,  growing  with  the  years  clearer 
and  more  specific  until  it  takes  the  form  of  a 
person,  a  Son  of  David,  an  everlasting  King, 
a  Prince  of  Peace. 

The  walls  of  Jewish  exclusiveness  are  broken 
down  and  the  Messiah  is  the  desire  of  all  nations, 
the  hope  of  the  world. 

So  the  work  of  the  prophets  is  ever  spiritual, 
not  formal.  They  make  God  known  —  the 
one  real,  controlling  person  of  the  world  and  of 


The  Authority  of  the  Message         171 

human  life:  God  in  His  moral  attributes,  in 
His  great  purpose,  manifest  in  all  His  dealings, 
to  make  men  righteous. 

They  make  man  known,  the  essential  nature 
and  worth  of  man:  man  stripped  of  all  the 
accidents  of  life ;  man  lifted  up  into  the  light  of 
God  and  so  to  a  true  self-knowledge. 

So  the  prophets  are  the  great  interpreters  of 
life,  —  they  tell  men  about  themselves ;  they 
search  their  age,  and  analyze  it ;  they  hold  the 
picture  up  before  the  eyes  of  the  generation  that 
men  may  see  whither  they  are  tending,  may  see 
those  great  lines  of  moral  and  spiritual  conduct 
that  are  as  essential  as  the  laws  of  nature. 

They  were  men  among  men,  knew  their  gen- 
eration, and  in  its  wants  found  their  message. 
They  believed  that  the  battle  with  sin  had  to 
be  fought  out  here,  that  the  righteous  life  of  the 
individual  signified  and  involved  the  righteous 
life  of  society. 

They  were  philanthropists  and  patriots  be- 
cause they  were  prophets.  Love  of  man  and 
country,  pure  and  passionate,  pulses  in  the 
speech  of  all  of  them.  Whatever  concerned 
man,  work  and  family,  houses  and  lands  and 
government,  concerned  the  moral  nature  of 
man  and  so  was  a  matter  of  religion.  Religion 
was  coterminous  with  life.  The  laws  of  God 
were  to  be  made  universal  and  absolute. 


172  The  Authority  of  the  Message 

And  the  authority  of  the  prophets  was  in  the 
fact  that  God  had  spoken  to  them,  not  especially 
in  signs  and  wonders,  but  in  the  heart  and  life 
of  each.  The  word  of  God  came  through  their 
own  life.  The  rough  shepherd  life  of  Amos,  the 
simplicity  and  certainty  of  nature's  processes, 
gave  him  his  message  to  the  sensuous,  selfish, 
cruel  life  of  degenerate  Israel.  And  Hosea  found 
the  compassionate  love  of  Jehovah  in  his  own 
home  love,  betrayed,  beaten,  but  unconquerable. 

Creed  and  rite  and  temple  are  holy,  but  the 
prophet  must  breathe  into  them  the  spirit  of  the 
Divine  life.  The  offices  of  religion  are  expres- 
sions of  the  soul  and  ministrative  of  its  higher 
life,  only  as  this  living  spirit  is  within  the  wheels. 
The  health  of  social  national  life  depends  upon 
the  prophet's  spirit.  "Where  there  is  no 
vision,  the  people  cast  off  restraint."  When 
no  pure  and  fearless  soul  has  an  unclouded 
vision  of  God,  and  gives  the  truth  that  opens 
anew  the  meaning  of  God's  plan  and  searches 
deeper  into  the  consciousness  of  men,  then 
religion  becomes  formalism,  its  vital  forces  are 
spent;  the  evil  elements  of  life  grow  bold,  and 
there  is  an  ebb  in  the  flow  of  God's  Kingdom. 
The  open  vision  points  to  the  open  path  of  prog- 
ress. The  vision  of  the  prophet's  life  reveals 
the  source  and  power  of  his  word.  Tennyson's 
poem  is  a  true  picture  of  the  prophet : 


The  Authority  of  the  Message         173 

"He  saw  thro'  life  and  death,  thro'  good  and  ill, 
He  saw  thro'  his  own  soul. 

The  vision  of  the  eternal  will  an  open  scroll  before 
him  lay." 

The  prophet's  spirit  is  to  be  an  abiding  spirit. 
The  work  did  not  close  with  the  Old  Testament 
prophets.  They  were  essentially  forth-tellers, 
speakers  for  God,  and  the  Spirit  of  God  gave 
them  their  message.  There  is  need  of  the  vital, 
interpretative  speaking  for  God,  —  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  will  give  the  message. 

There  have  been  Christian  prophets.  The 
apostles  were  such.  They  testified  of  what  they 
had  seen  and  heard.  Their  message  grew  with 
their  spiritual  growth.  The  flavor  and  empha- 
sis of  the  word  came  from  the  nature  and 
experience  of  each.  The  needs  of  churches  and 
the  life  of  the  age  providentially  directed  the 
unfolding  of  truth.  Their  message  was  pro- 
phetic, the  interpretation  of  the  life  of  God  in 
the  souls  of  men.  The  very  word  lives  in  the 
New  Testament.  And  all  the  words  used  for  the 
Christian  ministry,  such  as  herald  and  witness, 
have  in  them  the  essential  idea  of  the  prophet. 

The  message  is  the  same,  yet  ever  new.  The 
truth  of  Christ  is  the  eternal,  immutable  truth, 
yet  with  endless  form  and  application,  living 
principles  unfolding  with  the  varying  necessities 
and  conditions  of  the  human  race. 


174  The  Authority  of  the  Message 

Christ  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and 
forever.  He  is  the  Alpha  and  Omega  of  truth 
and  Hfe.  But  the  understanding  of  Christ 
grows  in  the  experience  of  every  true  Christian, 
and  from  age  to  age  in  the  experience  of  the 
Church.  It  is  a  narrow,  egotistic  conception  of 
the  Gospel  to  hold  that  our  philosophy  of  truth, 
our  special  viewpoint,  is  the  unchanging  one. 
The  world  has  come  by  many  painful  steps  to 
its  present  knowledge  of  Christ  and  His  salva- 
tion, and  the  message-getting  and  message- 
bringing  is  not  all  over.  Any  one  familiar  with 
the  history  of  Christian  doctrine  knows  its 
gradual  development  in  the  life  of  the  Church. 
Here  truth  has  been  brought  out  from  the 
shadow,  the  conception  of  it  made  sharp  and 
clear  by  prayer  and  meditation  and  contest 
and  service.  Here  emphasis  has  rested  upon  a 
different  aspect  of  truth,  that  in  the  end  better 
proportion  might  be  secured.  There  truth  has 
been  carried  into  a  larger  sphere,  followed  to 
its  logical  outcome,  or  applied  to  some  new 
condition  and  need  of  the  age. 

Such  unfolding  of  the  principles  of  Christ 
must  ever  go  on  to  meet  the  growing  intellectual 
and  social  life  of  men.  The  simplicity  of  the 
tmth  in  Christ  must  not  be  reduced  to  the 
natural  or  wilful  ignorance  of  a  church  or  gen- 
eration.    "To  preach  the  simple  Gospel"  is  a 


The  Authority  of  the  Message  175 

false  and  misleading  cry  when  it  means  the  end- 
less and  wearisome  repetition  of  a  few  accepted 
truths  concerning  Christ ;  and  fails  to  make  this 
divine  life  live  again  among  men,  throwing  the 
hght  of  God's  mind  upon  all  our  standards  and 
motives,  our  activities  and  conventions. 

Men  may  have  small  ideas  of  the  infinite  reach 
of  redemption !  Surely  Christ  has  a  message 
for  an  age  that  carries  at  times  the  methods  of 
the  market  into  the  courts  of  the  temple;  or 
rather  that  refuses  to  carry  the  vision  of  the 
temple  into  the  shop  and  the  counting-room. 

Christianity  has  a  message  for  men  who  try  to 
hold  in  one  hand  the  promises  of  eternal  life, 
and  grip  even  harder  with  the  other  all  that  the 
selfish  and  inhuman  fingers  of  mammon  can  hold ; 
who  buy  and  sell  men  in  the  same  market  with 
their  coal  and  their  iron;  who  live  in  luxury 
and  even  build  churches  and  other  noble  forms 
of  religion  out  of  conditions  in  which  thousands 
of  the  children  of  God  are  forced  to  live  little 
above  the  beasts  of  the  field. 

Christianity  has  a  social  message.  The  Spirit 
of  God  is  certainly  bringing  out  this  side  of 
truth  to  all  who  have  eyes  to  see.  When  it 
demands  repentance  from  sin,  it  may  mean  our 
complicity  with  unholy  customs  and  unjust 
laws  that  make  virtue  hard  and  vice  almost 
inevitable.     It  may  be  as  reprehensible  for  the 


176  The  Authority  of  the  Message 

minister  of  Christ  to  take  no  account  of  social 
conditions  as  for  the  doctor  to  care  nothing  for 
sanitary  welfare  —  simply  to  stick  to  his  individ- 
ual cases.  If  we  are  anxious  for  nothing  but  to 
know  the  truth  and  to  proclaim  it,  lovingly  and 
fully,  we  shall  have  a  message. 

For  the  Spirit  of  God,  the  spirit  of  truth,  is 
watching  over  all  thought  and  life,  all  contest  and 
ministry,  guiding  the  researches  of  the  great 
scholars,  the  obedient  step  of  the  humble  follow- 
ers, and  the  service  of  every  one  who  loves  his 
fellow-men,  that  at  last  Christ  may  have  the  pre- 
eminence. 

Notice  a  few  of  the  noble  lives  through  whom 
God  has  spoken,  —  the  prophets  of  the  Christian 
church. 

Clement  brought  out  the  immanence  of  God, 
God  not  simply  transcendent,  above  all  and 
Lord  of  all,  but  in  touch  with  every  life.  His 
presence  the  very  life  of  the  world. 

Augustine  dwelt  upon  the  sovereignty  of 
God,  God  the  source  of  good. 

Luther  taught  the  world  the  personal  relation 
of  the  individual  soul  to  God  and  the  freedom 
of  the  conscience. 

Wesley's  message  was  the  boundless  grace  of 
God  —  sufficient  for  the  lowest :  Christ  a  mighty 
Saviour,  saving  from  the  uttermost  to  the  utter- 
most. 


The  Authority  of  the  Message         177 

And  Phillips  Brooks  has  left  his  word  of  God, 
that  our  generation  will  not  soon  forget :  that 
man  though  a  prodigal  is  everywhere  and  always 
a  son;  and  the  fulness  and  glory  of  the  life  of 
sons. 

All  these  men  were  prophets. 

It  is  at  a  long  distance  that  most  men  follow 
such  prophetic  souls.  But  this  cannot  lessen  the 
truth  of  privilege  and  duty.  Every  man  fit  to 
stand  in  the  pulpit  must  be  in  his  own  way  and 
degree  a  prophet.  He  must  receive  the  word  of 
God.  He  has  no  light  on  coming  events,  he 
has  no  new  Gospel  to  give;  but  he  is  a  forth- 
teller  for  God,  he  must  speak  plainly  and  faith- 
fully the  message  God  gives  him.  He  must 
reexpress  the  old  Gospel  in  the  thought  and 
speech  of  his  own  age,  so  that  men  can  receive 
it.  The  Christian  preacher  must  make  God 
known ;  he  must  in  some  way  open  the  heavens, 
give  eyes  to  this  peering,  questioning  age,  and 
make  God  real;  he  must  make  man  known 
to  himself;  he  must  work  his  way  through  the 
discussions  and  activities  and  conventions  of 
life,  and  lay  hold  of  the  soul ;  he  must  impress 
men  with  the  radical  and  sovereign  nature  of 
the  Gospel  remedy,  the  thoroughness  and  reach 
of  the  Christian  truth,  stopping  short  of  nothing 
less  than  the  sanctification  of  life,  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  world. 


178  The  Authority  of  the  Message 

Nothing  but  the  prophet's  spirit  can  do  this. 
How  can  the  modem  preacher  have  the  proph- 
et's spirit,  and  so  the  word  of  authority? 
Some  typical  experiences  of  the  Bible  may  give 
the  answer.  The  prophet's  spirit  is  always  con- 
nected with  a  great  experience.  The  authority 
of  the  prophet's  word  lies  in  this  experience  of 
the  soul.  The  aged  Elijah  said  to  the  younger 
man,  Elisha,  "Ask  what  I  shall  do  for  thee, 
before  I  be  taken  away  from  thee;"  and  the 
younger,  catching  some  vision  of  the  work  to 
be  done  and  feeling  his  need,  asked  for  the  best 
thing  possible,  "  I  pray  thee  let  a  double  portion 
of  thy  spirit  be  upon  me."  "Thou  hast  asked 
a  hard  thing,"  said  Elijah,  "nevertheless,  if 
thou  see  me  when  I  am  taken  from  thee,  it 
shall  be  so  unto  thee ;  but  if  not,  it  shall  not  be 
so."  The  gift  was  conditioned  upon  his  close 
personal  following  to  the  very  end.  And  so, 
though  Elijah  repeatedly  tested  the  sincerity 
and  thoroughness  of  the  desire,  nothing  could 
shake  off  the  attendance  of  Elisha,  and  he  was 
present  at  the  striking  and  triumphant  close  of 
Elijah's  prophetic  career.  He  saw  the  heavens 
open,  and  the  translation  of  Elijah  in  the 
chariot  and  horses  of  fire.  The  narrative 
teaches  this  truth.  He  had  a  great  experience 
of  the  reality  of  God  and  the  spiritual  world, 
and  of  their  nearness  and  contact  with  this. 


The  Authority  of  the  Message  179 

And  the  spirit  of  Elijah  rested  upon  EHsha. 
Thenceforth  he  could  never  doubt  God  and 
God's  use  of  his  servants.  It  was  an  abiding 
experience,  and  years  after,  when  hemmed  in  at 
Dothan  by  the  armies  of  Syria,  he  was  not  dis- 
turbed; and  he  asked  that  the  eyes  of  his 
young  servant,  blinded  and  terrified  by  earthly 
power,  might  be  opened  and  that  he  might 
see  the  armies  of  heaven  marshalled  for  their 
defence. 

Some  such  great  vision  of  God's  truth,  some 
such  abiding  experience  of  God's  grace,  every 
true  prophet  has  had. 

Moses  stood  before  the  burning  bush,  an  exile 
in  the  desert,  doubting  the  meaning  of  his  dream 
of  a  nation's  deliverance,  perhaps  doubting  the 
very  power  of  Jehovah ;  and  that  common  bush 
became  aflame  with  God,  and  in  his  soul  the 
voice  of  the  Eternal  sounded,  and  he  went  forth 
to  do  God's  will,  with  something  of  the  patience 
of  the  Eternal,  "Enduring,  as  seeing  him  who 
is  invisible."  Elijah  at  Carmel,  and  still  more 
at  Horeb,  in  the  voice  that  was  stillness  itself, 
had  the  unmistakable  evidence  that  God  was 
in  the  world  working  out  his  righteous  will. 
Said  of  Tarsus  was  stopped  on  his  conscientious 
but  mad  career,  and  saw  and  heard  the  Christ, 
whom  he  thought  dead  and  buried,  and  in  that 
glorious   vision   had   the   spiritualizing   of   his 


180  The  Authority  of  the  Message 

learning  and  experience,  and  became  Paul  the 
Apostle. 

Augustine,  after  having  whirled  over  all  the 
dance  floors  of  philosophy,  and  paid  his  respect 
to  all  possible  systems,  and  grovelled  through 
the  experience  of  the  senses,  heard  the  voice  in 
the  cathedral  cloister  of  Milan,  "Take,  read;" 
and  the  Scriptures  revealed  God  and  the  soul 
to  him,  and  he  could  say  out  of  his  deepest 
experience,  "Thou  hast  made  us  for  Thyself,  and 
our  heart  is  restless  until  it  rests  in  Thee." 
Luther,  from  the  study  of  the  monk's  cell,  and 
the  painful  ascent  of  the  steps  of  St.  Peter, 
knew  the  truth  "that  the  just  shall  live  by 
faith." 

John  Wesley  had  profound  experience  of 
want  and  sin  in  the  mines  and  factories  of 
Yorkshire,  and  of  God's  grace  and  spirit  in  the 
prayer  room  at  Oxford.  Phillips  Brooks  saw 
love  for  Christ  shining  in  a  mother's  face  and 
found  that  all  knowledge  and  culture  and  privi- 
lege had  their  true  use  in  glorifying  the  divine 
life  among  men. 

And  it  is  possible  for  each  soul,  in  its  own 
degree  and  in  its  own  way,  to  have  some  such 
living  realization  of  God's  truth.  We  have  the 
message  in  the  word  of  God ;  but  the  intellectual 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  alone,  the  most 
minute  and  scholarly  study  of  Bible  and  theology 


The  Authority  of  the  Message         181 

and  providential  history,  will  not  give  a  man 
the  prophet's  spirit,  and  so  the  authority  of  the 
word.  The  word  must  be  detached  from  the 
book  and  become  a  living  element  of  experience. 
Ezekiel  had  to  eat  the  roll  before  it  was  his 
word.  Going  through  a  seminary  does  not 
make  a  man  a  prophet.  We  do  not  need  more 
ministers,  so  much  as  better  ones.  It  is  a  singu- 
lar fact  that  the  false  prophets  were  thick  when 
the  schools  of  the  prophets  flourished  the  most. 
They  learned  the  trick  of  speech  and  the  rote 
of  religion.  It  is  very  easy  to  get  the  prophet's 
mantle  and  to  assume  the  prophet's  tone.  But 
the  prophet's  spirit  is  a  deeper  matter.  Without 
living  experience  of  truth  God  does  not  speak 
through  us. 

It  is  beautifully  said  of  Augustine :  "  He  bore 
witness  of  what  he  himself  had  seen.  The  secret 
of  his  marvellous  influence  was  that  he  proph- 
esied, not  of  what  he  had  read  or  thought,  but  of 
what  he  had  experienced;  that  he  uttered  not 
merely  his  ideas,  hut  hiinself." 

And  Charles  Kingsley  in  "Hypatia"  vividly 
describes  the  power  of  Augustine:  "Whether 
or  not  Augustine  knew  truths  for  all  men,  he  at 
least  knew  sins  for  all  men,  and  for  himself  as 
well  as  his  hearers.  There  was  no  denying  that. 
He  was  a  real  man,  right  or  wrong.  What  he 
rebuked  in  others,  he  had  felt  in  himself,  and 


182  The  Authority  of  the  Message 

fought  it  to  the  death-grip,  as  the  flash  and 
quiver  of  that  worn  face  proclaimed."  ^ 

Then,  to  have  authority  for  our  message,  we 
must  get  in  some  way  an  experience  of  religion. 
The  old  phrase,  so  much  abused,  has  in  it  the 
profoundest  truth. 

Men  are  so  easily  moved  by  popular  opinion, 
by  currents  of  influence  about  them,  by  super- 
ficial and  flippant  criticism  of  religion,  because 
they  have  no  deep  experience  of  God's  grace. 
Those  who  know  what  a  sure  foundation  God 
has  laid  do  not  make  haste.  The  tree  that 
sends  its  roots  deep  down  into  the  earth  lifts 
its  trunk  high  against  the  sun  and  storm,  and 
grows  by  the  very  contests  of  nature. 

The  man  that  has  even  the  shortest  personal 
creed  —  the  single  truth  of  the  blind  man  — 
"One  thing  I  know,"  is  built  on  the  rock,  and 
the  winds  and  the  floods  cannot  destroy. 

We  are  not  to  seek  for  any  mysterious  expe- 
rience, trust  in  any  singular  and  striking  ex- 
perience that  may  come  to  us ;  but  we  shall  have 
this  experience  of  religion  if  we  are  faithful. 

It  means  the  honest  effort  to  be  a  student  of 
the  Scriptures,  —  to  understand  the  message 
of  the  Gospel  in  its  definiteness  and  sweep  and 
passion.  A  lifelong  discipline  it  means.  The 
man  who  cannot  say  to  grammar  and  philosophy 

1  p.  339. 


The  Authority  of  the  Message         183 

and  history,  as  they  have  to  do  with  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  Word,  "  You  are  my  tools  and 
I  will  know  how  to  use  you,  and  I  will  make  you 
bring  forth  things  new  and  old  from  the  divine 
treasury,"  is  not  fit  to  go  into  the  ministry. 
In  some  way  the  Bible  must  be  made  a  hving 
book,  and  with  such  a  large  and  growing  com- 
prehension that  it  can  be  made  a  living  book  to 
others. 

All  the  real  prophets  of  Christianity  have 
been  masters  of  the  Bible.  They  have  dared, 
if  need  be,  to  be  ignorant  of  many  books,  that 
they  might  know  the  one.  It  has  been  the  one 
book  to  them,  and  its  thought  has  dominated 
them. 

If  we  are  willing  to  gain  the  power  of  a  sincere 
and  thorough  scholarship,  we  shall  have  com- 
monplaces of  the  Word  lighted  with  new  gloiy, 
and  visions  of  the  Christ  that  shall  make  the 
heart  burn  within  us.  And  we  are  to  dis- 
trust any  indolent  and  easy  way  of  spiritual 
knowledge. 

It  means  an  honest  effort  to  understand  the 
life  of  men,  a  training  in  thinking  and  feeling 
that  shall  help  to  a  penetrative  understanding  of 
other  men's  lives  and  hopes  and  temptations; 
some  view  of  the  long  generations  that  have 
gone  before  us  for  poise  and  sanity  and  catholic- 
ity, and  a  humanity  that  shall  count  the  humblest 


184  The  Authority  of  the  Message 

and  feeblest  about  us  of  priceless  worth,  and 
put  us  in  the  place  of  "men  my  brothers,  men 
the  workers." 

It  means  at  times  a  separation  from  men  — 
the  sacred  hours  of  quiet  in  the  soul,  when  God 
can  speak  and  we  can  listen  to  His  voice.  No 
"  Canon  Wealthy  "  of  Hall  Caine's  creation,  who 
lives  ever  in  the  eye  of  the  world,  who  secretly 
prides  himself  upon  being  a  man  of  the  world, 
and  adapting  Christianity  to  the  nineteenth 
century,  who  comes  into  his  pulpit  so  smug  and 
well-favored  and  self-satisfied  with  his  fine 
elocution  and  his  polished  rhetoric,  —  no  man  of 
this  stamp  can  ever  do  the  prophet's  work.  He 
may  for  the  time  gather  an  influential  constit- 
uency; he  can  gather  few  souls  into  the  King- 
dom of  a  spiritual  life. 

This  is  no  plea  for  ascetic  virtue.  The  day 
of  the  monk  is  gone.  The  day  of  the  large  vision 
and  the  serene  life  should  come.  But  we  can- 
not see  far  and  clear  if  we  are  always  in  the 
crowd;  neither  shall  we  have  the  serene  soul, 
strong  and  true  amid  petty  and  confused 
alarms,  unless  sometimes,  like  our  Master,  we 
seek  the  mountain  and  the  desert. 

And  if  this  finding  of  reality  must  come  ta 
some  of  us  through  a  still  deeper  experience, 
through  the  fight  with  fierce  passions  or  with 
the  spectres  of  doubt,  through  the  yielding  of 


The  Authority  of  the  Message  185 

cherished  ambitions,  or  the  death  of  hopes  dear 
as  Hfe  itself,  we  must  not  mistrust  the  guidance 
of  our  Father  and  call  ourselves  the  afflicted, 
but  like  brave  and  true  men  wait  for  God  to 
speak.  "He  calls  His  servants  from  the  high- 
lands of  trial."  It  is  the  prophet's  experience 
of  the  reality  of  God  and  of  heaven  and  of 
spiritual  truth. 

The  question  as  to  the  authority  of  the  mes- 
sage has  been  partly  answered.  The  prophet's 
experience  speaks  more  convincingly  than  tech- 
nical and  philosophical  discussion. 

Protestantism  means  trust  in  the  living  Spirit 
to  interpret  the  facts  of  historic  Christianity 
and  the  growing  life  of  the  race.  It  means  a 
religion  of  the  Spirit  and  not  a  religion  of  merely 
outward  authority.  No  authority  of  Church  or 
the  Bible  can  take  the  place  of  the  voice  of  a 
man's  own  soul,  guided  by  the  Spirit  of  truth. 

But  Protestantism  in  the  matter  of  religion 
as  well  as  society  may  be  in  danger  of  undue 
individualism.  The  tendency  may  easily  be 
to  place  emphasis  upon  experience  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  the  Bible.  Men  speak  of  a  continuous 
revelation,  of  the  authority  of  the  individual 
conscience,  as  though  Christ  were  not  the  fullest 
word  of  God  we  knew,  and  the  experience  of 
man  might  yet  develop  a  more  authoritative 
religion  than  Christianity.     So  there  are  varying 


186         The  Authority  of  the  Message 

and  conflicting  voices  in  the  pulpit.  There  is 
a  vagueness  in  the  message,  and  men  cry  as  of 
old  —  what  is  the  truth  ?  And  they  question 
whether  the  pulpit  knows  any  more  of  these 
mighty  problems  of  religion  than  the  uncertain 
multitude  does. 

^Vhat  is  the  relation  between  the  Bible  and 
experience,  between  the  objective  and  inner 
revelation?  Can  our  experience  have  any 
authority  apart  from  Christ?  The  Scriptures 
are  the  treasury  of  religious  experience.  The 
truth  was  felt  and  lived  and  made  a  revelation 
by  life  before  there  was  any  record  of  it.  The 
New  Testament  was  experienced  and  spoken 
before  it  was  written.  The  Gospel  is  the  life, 
and  the  book  is  simply  the  record  of  it.  In 
Christ  was  life  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men. 
But  this  experience  is  written  that  we  might 
have  hope. 

Men  get  their  clear,  redeeming  knowledge  of 
God  through  Christ,  and  they  know  Christ 
through  the  Scriptures. 

The  seat  of  religious  authority  is  in  the  soul 
of  man,  but  the  source  of  authority  is  God. 
The  spirit  of  man  is  the  candle  of  the  Lord. 
Conscience  recognizes  one  as  supreme;  and 
Christ  as  the  final  word,  the  most  perfect  rev- 
elation of  the  Father,  the  "personification  of 
God  in  human  history,"  is  the  norm  of  experi- 


The  Authority  of  the  Message         187 

ence.  Man's  experience  of  God  cannot  go  be- 
yond His.  That  I  may  know  Him,  is  the  great 
endeavor  of  the  spiritual  man.  So  our  ex- 
perience is  inspired,  tested,  guided  by  the  Scrip- 
tures as  the  word  of  Christ.  The  authority  of 
the  preacher's  word  comes  from  the  experience 
in  the  soul  of  the  truth  of  Christ.  It  is  the  union 
of  the  outer  and  inner  experience:  the  great 
objective  facts  of  Christ's  Gospel  as  experienced 
and  so  interpreted  by  the  soul  of  man.  The 
man  who  rests  solely  upon  the  past  becomes  a 
traditionalist  and  dogmatist  and  fails  to  believe 
in  the  living  Christ.  The  man  who  trusts 
solely  to  his  own  experience  is  a  rationalist  and 
may  have  no  more  authority  than  his  own 
imperfect  life.  The  life  that  draws  its  truth  and 
inspiration  from  the  Christ,  that  is  ever  trying 
to  incarnate  more  of  His  truth,  is  the  life  to 
whom  God  is  speaking  and  that  shall  be  able 
to  speak  to  men,  not  as  the  scribes,  but  with  the 
power  of  a  living  and  life-giving  word. 


IX 
A  LIVING  MESSAGE 


OUTLINE 

The  Age  emphasizes  the  importance  of  a  Living  Message. 
The  organizations  of  the  Church  tend  to  hide  the  prophetic 

office. 
Critical  and  aesthetic  taste  in  worship  may  lessen  the  sense 

of  message. 
The  indifference  of  the  multitude  calls  for  a  more  vital 
word. 
"The  Testimony  of  Jesus"  is  the  Living  Message. 
Christ  is  the  essential  message  of  the  Bible. 
Christ  interprets  the  nature  and  movement  of  human  life. 
The  Christian  Prophets  have  ever  given  the  Testimony  of 
Jesus. 
The  spiritual  eras  have  been  marked  by  the  preaching  of 
Christ. 
The  Living  Message  for  each  age  is  to  be  found  in  the  Christ. 
The  Person  of  Christ  makes  the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel. 
The  living  message  must  be  simple  and  positive. 
The  positiveness  of  the  modern  pulpit  affected  by  the  en- 
larged religious  problem  and  by  Biblical  criticism. 
The  essential  and  unchangeable  in  the  person  of  Christ. 
The  Person  of  Christ  makes  tlie  full,  comprehensive  message. 
The  knowledge  of    Christ  the  condition  for  the    Preacher's 
Living  Message. 

References: 

Van  Dyke.     "The  Gospel  for  an  Age  of  Doubt." 

Lect.  2-5. 
Gordon.     "The  Christ  of  To-day." 
Simpson.     "  The  Fact  of  Christ." 
Abbott.     "The  Christian  Ministry."     Lect.  9-10. 
Ross.     "The  Universality  of  Jesus." 


190 


IX 

A   LIVING   MESSAGE 

"The  Church  needs  the  prophet  far  more 
than  the  priest."  To  awaken  men  to  a  sense  of 
God  and  to  the  higher  relations  of  hfe,  the 
preacher  must  have  a  message  that  is  vital, 
essential,  inspiring.  What  shall  the  message 
be? 

The  age  speaks  the  importance  of  the  preach- 
er's message. 

The  highly  organized  nature  of  religious  life 
makes  a  living  message  imperative. 

The  modern  church,  in  its  desire  to  minister 
to  the  whole  life  of  man,  has  become  a  great 
business  with  its  multiplying  details  of  clubs 
and  classes  and  societies.  The  prophetic  office 
may  be  lost  in  the  maze  of  activities.  "The 
minister  can  be  the  busiest  man  in  town,  and 
yet  leave  his  great  task  undone."  A  growing 
refinement  finds  expression  in  a  critical  and 
aesthetic  taste  in  worship.  Worship  should 
be  freed  from  careless  and  irreverent  forms, 
made  the   sincere   expression   of  the   religious 

191 


192  A  hiving  Message 

life  of  the  Church,  and  the  more  adequate  voice 
and  symbol  of  the  great  facts  of  religion. 

But  it  must  be  remembered  that  perfection 
of  liturgy  has  never  been  synonymous  with 
spiritual  life.  The  critical  eras  have  never 
been  creative  ones.  The  emphasis  upon  form 
has  invariably  suppressed  the  Spirit.  "It  may 
be  held  for  certain,"  says  Canon  Henson,  of 
Westminster  Abbey,  ''that  an  excessive  care 
for  religious  ceremony  is  incompatible  with  a 
high  standard  of  preaching." 

Organization  and  worship,  perfect  as  they 
ought  to  be,  are  no  substitutes  for  the  prophet's 
voice.  The  machinery  of  the  Church  will  move 
in  vain  without  the  Spirit  within  the  wheels. 
The  arts  may  fill  the  temple  with  beauty  and 
majesty,  but  the  worshippers  are  no  better 
unless  the  Shekinah  is  there. 

And  if  we  turn  from  the  Church  to  the  multi- 
tudes without,  we  shall  feel  still  more  deeply  the 
need  of  a  vital  message.  Is  there  a  living,  loving 
God,  and  has  He  a  word  for  the  strength  and 
comfort  of  men?  This  is  the  question  back  of 
every  other,  and  men  have  a  right  to  look  to  the 
teacher  of  religion  for  the  answer. 

We  must  not  try  to  quiet  our  conscience  by 
saying  that  the  multitudes  beyond  the  Church 
are  irreligious.  That  is  not  the  exact  and 
whole   truth   of  the   matter.    They   are   more 


A  Living  Message  193 

uncertain  than  irreligious.  The  former  con- 
ceptions of  God  do  not  meet  the  demand  of  the 
modern  mind.  Men  think  of  creation  as  con- 
tinuous and  law  as  natural,  and  they  apply  the 
same  tests  to  belief  in  God  as  to  other  knowledge ; 
and  many  of  them  say,  ''We  cannot  know," 
and  they  know  that  something  is  lost  from  life 
when  they  say  it.  Some  still  keep  their  places 
in  the  church,  for  the  sake  of  their  families  and 
the  tender  memories  of  their  childhood.  But 
there  can  be  little  force  in  such  religious  con- 
formity when  against  the  teachings  of  the 
Church  their  reason  places  a  grave  question. 
But  far  the  greater  number,  uncertain  as  to 
God  and  the  future,  devote  themselves  with 
new  zest  to  the  life  of  this  world.  Never  before 
has  man  had  such  mastery  over  the  earth,  and 
never  before  has  its  life  been  so  interesting  and 
absorbing.  Every  sphere  of  industrial  toil, 
all  that  ministers  to  physical  and  mental  de- 
light, the  realms  of  investigation  and  specula- 
tion, the  relations  and  work  of  society  and  the 
State,  have  the  devotion  of  multitudes  of  men 
and  women  who  do  not  seek  guidance  and 
inspiration  from  the  Church. 

To  their  intellectual  uncertainty  must  be 
added  the  moral  questioning  as  to  the  power  of 
the  Church  to  control  the  life  even  of  Christian 
lands.     The  multitudes  without  the  Church  are 


194  A  Living  Message 

not  irreligious,  though  they  may  seem  to  hve 
without  God.  Creeds,  hturgies,  sermons,  mean 
little  to  them,  yet  they  are  not  without  moral 
earnestness,  and  many  are  eager  to  serve  their 
fellow-men.  If  the  questions  of  religion  are  not 
uppermost,  it  is  not  because  they  lack  religious 
natures  or  that  these  questions  will  not  again 
assert  their  supremacy.  "Ours  is  not  an  age  of 
doubt,  it  is  one  of  hesitation  and  helplessness. 
It  is  a  very  serious  age,  with  a  grim  determina- 
tion for  truthfulness.  It  will  not  pretend.  It 
is  not  atheistic  in  temper,  it  is  at  heart  forlorn. 
Its  restless  energy,  its  feverish  activity,  its  lust 
for  business,  are  only  in  part  due  to  love  for 
these  things.  This  world  is  to-day  so  much  as 
it  is  to  civilized  man,  because  the  other  world 
has  never  seemed  so  remote." 

How  shall  the  teachers  of  Christianity  so  live 
and  speak  that  God  shall  be  real,  that  the  soul 
in  men  shall  awake  and  assert  its  divineness, 
and  men  shall  feel  that  to  live  the  life  of  men 
they  must  have  faith  in  God  ?  It  is  all  a  chal- 
lenge to  the  pulpit ;  a  call  for  a  living  message. 
What  shall  the  message  be? 

In  the  last  book  of  the  sacred  Canon,  through 
a  series  of  titanic  pictures,  the  contest  of  Chris- 
tianity with  the  forces  of  evil  is  portrayed. 
Then  comes  the  vision  of  triumph.  The  voice 
»  Dr.  McConnell,  "  Christ,"  p.  190. 


A  Living  Message  195 

of  a  great  multitude  is  heard,  as  the  voice  of 
many  waters  and  mighty  thunders  praising 
God.  The  centre  of  the  picture  is  Jesus;  the 
power  and  the  honor  are  His ;  in  the  tender  and 
beautiful  symbolism  of  John,  it  is  ''the  mar- 
riage of  the  Lamb."  All  creation  joins  the 
Church  universal  in  its  rejoicing.  And  the 
men  who  shall  bring  in  the  promised  day  are 
the  men  in  all  ages  that  hold  the  testimony  of 
Jesus. 

The  scene  closes  with  the  impressive  words: 
"For  the  testimony  of  Jesus  is  the  spirit  of 
prophecy."  The  true  prophets  of  the  Church 
—  the  men  who  speak  for  God,  and  win  the 
spiritual  victories  —  are  the  men  who  give 
the  testimony  of  Jesus.  Christ  is  the  living 
message. 

It  is  a  truism  to  say  that  this  library  of  re- 
hgion  that  we  call  the  Bible  has  its  significance 
and  unity  in  the  person  of  Christ.  Its  history 
is  a  record  of  the  people's  need  and  preparation 
for  Him,  its  prophecy  points  with  increasing 
clearness  to  His  coming  and  character.  Christ 
said  of  the  Old  Testament  writings  that  "they 
testify  of  Me."  And  the  reason  and  heart  of 
the  New  Testament  is  the  person  of  Christ.  Its 
Gospels  are  His  biography,  the  Acts  are  a  record 
of  His  presence  in  the  infant  Church,  the  Epistles 
are  the  unfolding  and  application  of  His  truths, 


196  A  Living  Message 

the  Apocalypse  the  picture  of  the  present  and 
future  contest  of  Christ  in  His  Church  with  the 
forces  of  evil.  He  is  its  substance,  its  purpose, 
its  inspiration.  The  supreme  authority  of  the 
Bible  is  in  its  living  word. 

Christ  holds  the  key  to  the  nature  and  move- 
ment of  human  life.  Christianity  begins  as 
simply  loyalty  to  the  person  of  Christ  and  grows 
into  an  all-comprehending  philosophy  of  life, 
with  a  single,  ever  moving,  and  unchanging  cen- 
tre in  the  fact  of  Christ.  The  experience  of 
Paul  is  in  some  sense  a  path  and  type  of  the  ex- 
perience of  the  Church.  He  believed  when  he 
stood  before  the  living  Christ  and  so  knew  that 
His  life  and  teachings  were  the  word  of  God. 
At  first  He  was  simply  the  Messiah,  the  prom- 
ise made  to  the  fathers;  but  to  Paul's  devout 
meditation  and  profound  experience  He  became 
the  very  fulness  of  God.  He  was  the  friend  and 
Saviour  of  sinners,  and  through  this  relation  He 
grew  into  the  interpreter  and  ruler  of  all  life, 
of  nature  and  of  human  souls,  the  "  One  worthy 
to  open  the  book"  of  man's  nature  and  destiny, 
the  philosophy  of  history,  "in  whom  were  all 
things  created,  in  the  heavens  and  upon  the 
earth,"  "in  whom  all  things  hold  together," 
the  one  divine  event  to  which  the  whole  creation 
moves. 

"I  remember,"  says  Dr.  Dale,  of  Birming- 


A  Living  Message  197 

ham,  ''that  when  I  discovered  and  knew  that 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  ahve,  I  could  think  of 
nothing  else,  and  preach  nothing  else  for  weeks. 
It  was  a  genuine  Eastertime." 

The  historic  Jesus  is  not  only  fact  to  be  ac- 
cepted and  remembered,  to  be  believed  and 
taught  with  its  inference  of  doctrine  and  duty, 
He  is  the  living  Brother,  Redeemer,  and  Lord, 
the  "light  that  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh 
into  the  world,"  the  perfect  truth  of  which  the 
best  that  men  have  found  in  every  age  and  land 
are  "broken  lights,"  the  realized  dream  of  sages 
and  seers,  the  inspirer  of  all  true  life,  the  direc- 
tor of  the  beneficent  energies  of  mankind,  the 
Lord  of  that  "Eternal  Kingdom  to  which  the 
race  was  destined  from  the  beginning,  and  in 
which  alone  the  life  of  man,  which  is  akin  to 
the  life  of  God,  can  reach  the  height  of  its  power, 
its  greatness,  its  perfection,  and  its  joy." 

It  follows  that  all  teachers  who  have  caught 
visions  of  the  Kingdom  have  in  some  way 
spoken  of  Jesus.  The  testimony  of  Jesus  has 
been  the  message  of  all  prophetic  voices.  It 
certainly  was  so  with  the  Apostles.  Their 
preaching  was  all  about  Jesus,  —  the  story  of 
His  life  and  death  and  resurrection.  Naturally, 
these  facts  were  adapted  to  and  colored  by 
the  condition  of  the  audience  to  which  they 
spoke.    To  the  Jew  they  spoke  of  Christ  as  the 


198  A  Living  Message 

fulfilment  of  their  Scriptures,  to  the  Roman 
as  the  doer  of  mighty  works,  to  the  Greek  as  the 
teacher  of  beautiful  and  divine  truths;  to  the 
disciple  of  whatever  race  or  speech,  Christ  as 
the  author  and  companion  of  the  new  life. 

As  the  generations  pass  and  the  Church 
pushes  into  new  regions  and  meets  new  con- 
ditions and  presents  the  Gospel  as  a  world- 
religion,  the  simple  story  of  Christ  grows  and 
unfolds  by  its  contest  with  new  systems  and  its 
adaptation  to  larger  experiences.  It  becomes 
the  epic  of  heroic  sacrifice,  the  drama  of  personal 
and  social  devotion,  the  voiced  lyric  of  personal 
feeling,  the  history  of  organized  service,  the 
philosophy  of  thought  and  life.  But  the  word, 
under  whatever  form,  has  power  from  Christ. 
It  is  the  most  life-giving  as  it  has  most  of  Him. 

The  Spiritual  Eras  of  the  Church  have  been 
the  days  of  preaching,  when  the  old  story  was 
told  with  new  power.  The  Christian  prophets 
have  ever  given  the  testimony  of  Jesus. 

Clement  spoke  of  God  in  His  world  and  God 
in  human  life,  because  he  had  seen  Him  in  the 
face  of  the  Christ. 

Augustine's  message,  that  God  alone  is  good 
and  the  source  of  good,  came  from  his  profound 
knowledge  of  his  own  heart,  and  that  all  that 
was  truly  good  in  him  came  from  his  fellowship 
with  the  Divine  man. 


A  Living  Message  199 

Luther  stirred  the  low  and  mechanical  life 
of  medisevalism  with  his  doctrine  of  salvation 
by  personal  faith  in  the  Christ. 

Wesley,  in  the  midst  of  a  philosophic,  selfish, 
and  hopeless  Christianity,  renewed  the  faith  of 
men  in  the  living  power  of  Christ  to  save  the 
lowest. 

Charming,  to  men  tenacious  of  opinions  and 
cold  of  heart,  spoke  of  Jesus  as  the  elder  brother 
and  the  imitableness  of  His  example. 

Phillips  Brooks  revealed  the  power  and  glory 
of  sonship  in  Christ  to  an  age  overwhelmed  by 
the  sensible  and  the  material  and  sceptical  of 
its  spiritual  worth. 

Each  great  soul  has  found  the  message  in 
Christ  and  has  added  something  to  the  fulness 
and  divineness  of  the  message.  There  is  a  story 
of  the  Buddha  that  is  far  truer  of  Jesus.  It  is 
said  that  a  group  of  devout  artists  were  called 
to  make  a  picture  of  "the  Light  of  Asia."  Each 
in  turn  wrought,  and  out  of  his  own  experience 
and  conception  gave  some  new  touch  to  the 
picture.  No  single  life  alone  could  give  more 
than  a  partial  and  imperfect  view,  but  together 
the  picture  was  complete.  No  man  or  church  or 
age  can  give  the  whole  message  of  Christ.  Every 
man  can  give  a  true  message,  and  the  work 
shall  go  on  until  the  world  shall  see  Him  as 
He  is. 


200  A  Living  Message 

The  fresh,  living  message  is  always  to  be  had 
from  the  Christ.  The  experiences  of  the  ages, 
the  body  of  tradition,  must  be  considered.  An 
undue  individualism  is  the  sin  of  Protestantism. 
Disregard  for  what  other  men  have  found  and 
taught,  the  great  symbols  of  the  Church,  may 
show  a  sad  lack  of  humility.  But  nevertheless 
there  is  no  message  of  life-giving  power  apart 
from  a  new  and  personal  experience  of  Christ. 
"Back  to  Christ"  is  the  watchword  of  a  vital 
and  sincere  faith.  David  Hume  once  said,  on 
hearing  John  Brown,  of  Haddington:  "That  is 
the  man  for  me;  he  means  what  he  says;  he 
speaks  as  if  Jesus  Christ  were  at  his  elbow." 
And  it  is  said  of  Rutherford,  that  "when  he 
appeared  in  the  pulpit  on  Sundays,  the  people 
were  overawed  with  the  sense  of  Christ  being 
in  the  preacher.  It  was  Christ's  face  they  saw 
beaming  on  them  in  the  face  of  their  pastor, 
and  his  tones  thrilled  with  the  power  of  the 
voice  which  once  spake  on  earth  as  never  man 
spake."  ^ 

And  this  is  the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel,  some 
word  of  Christ  that  has  sounded  through  the 
depths  of  the  preacher's  own  soul,  some  relation 
with  Him  that  has  mastered  his  conscience  and 
desire  and  will,  so  that  he  can  say  to  men, 
"Come  and  see  that  the  Lord  is  good,"  and  men 
1  Horton,  "Verbum  Dei,"  p.  174. 


A  Living  Message  201 

shall  believe  that  he  knows  something  of  the 
message  he  speaks. 

The  simplicity  of  the  prophet's  message  is 
in  perfect  keeping  with  its  comprehensiveness, 
though  to  a  superficial  mind  they  may  seem  con- 
tradictory. Both  are  essential  truths  for  the 
preacher.  The  word  that  is  to  win  attention 
and  give  life  must  be  a  simple  and  positive  word 
of  Christ.  Confused,  obscured,  variant  voices 
have  come  from  the  pulpit  of  our  age. 

This  is  God's  world,  men  say,  and  all  that 
ministers  to  the  good  of  man  is  a  part  of  His 
Kingdom  and  may  have  place  in  the  instruction 
of  His  servants.  The  altar  sanctifieth  the  gift. 
And  the  horizons  have  widened  too  fast  for  the 
eye,  and  the  prophet  has  not  been  able  to  grasp 
the  meaning  of  the  whole  from  the  standpoint 
of  Christ  and  His  cross. 

And  then  criticism  has  been  doing  its  necessary 
work.  The  word  of  Christ  has  come  to  us  in  a 
body  of  writings,  and  these  cannot  escape  the 
tests  of  other  literature.  The  truth  has  been 
bequeathed  to  us  through  systems  of  human 
thought,  and  the  mind  of  Christ  must  be  dis- 
tinguished from  human  forms.  All  honor  to  the 
reverent  and  fearless  scholars  of  the  Church. 
The  quiet  work  of  the  study  may  be  as  important 
for  the  Kingdom  of  God  as  the  fervent  word  of 
the  Evangelist. 


202  A  Living  Message 

But  will  men  distinguish  between  the  things 
that  are  shaken  and  the  unchangeable  word? 
Through  the  dust  of  criticism  will  men  see  that 
indestructible  and  divine  message  which  is  the 
heart  and  burden  of  the  Evangel  ?  The  people 
—  they  must  have  a  clear  word  to  comfort  their 
hearts  and  show  them  the  way  everlasting.  We 
may  know  but  a  few  things,  but  they  must  be 
the  essential  and  the  eternal.  Our  critical 
studies  will  be  in  vain  unless  they  make  the  way 
plainer.  We  have  not  the  spirit  of  truth  unless 
Christ  is  glorified.  We  cannot  be  uncertain 
about  Him  and  speak  a  doubtful  word  and  be 
His  messenger  and  His  witness.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  pulpit  of  the  age  has  lost  some- 
thing of  its  certitude  and  authority.  And  in 
reverence  and  humility  and  sincerity  of  study 
and  of  life  it  must  regain  it,  if  we  are  to  have  a 
clear  word  of  prophecy.  We  must  stop  quibbling 
about  the  form  and  fringe  of  truth,  and  grasp 
that  which  is  the  life.  This  must  be  taught  with 
the  utmost  conviction  and  directness  and  sin- 
cerity. "The  critic  is  an  analyst  with  a  pair  of 
scales;  the  evangelist  is  a  missionary  with  a 
cross."  "Speak  a  gude  word  for  Jesus  Christ," 
said  the  dying  mother  to  her  boy,  in  the  beautiful 
story  by  Dr.  Watson.  "The  fire  of  the  hearth 
licked  up  the  masterpiece  with  its  statement  of 
theological  thought  and  its  quotation  from  the 


A  Living  Message  203 

scholars,  and  in  the  love  born  of  sacrifice  the 
young  minister  spoke  to  his  people.  The 
subject  was  Jesus  Christ,  and  before  he  had 
spoken  five  minutes  I  was  convinced,  who  am 
outside  dogmas  and  churches,  that  Christ  was 
present.  The  preacher  faded  from  before  one's 
eyes,  and  there  was  the  figure  of  the  Nazarene, 
best  lover  of  every  human  soul,  with  a  face  of 
tender  patience  such  as  Sarto  gave  the  Master 
in  the  Church  of  the  Annunziata,  and  stretch- 
ing out  his  hands  to  old  folk  and  little  children  as 
He  did,  before  His  death,  in  Galilee.  His  voice 
might  be  heard  any  moment,  as  I  have  imagined 
it  in  my  lonely  hours  by  the  winter  fire  or  on  the 
solitary  hills  —  soft,  low  and  sweet,  penetrating 
like  music  to  the  secret  of  the  heart, '  Come  unto 
Me  and  I  will  give  you  rest.'  " 

It  should  be  said  that  the  plea  for  a  simple 
positive  Gospel  is  sometimes  made  for  reasons 
that  can  hardly  be  harmonized  with  the  mind  of 
Christ.  A  full,  comprehensive  message  is  no 
less  important  than  a  simple  one,  and  they  need 
never  be  contradictory.  "Give  us  the  simple 
Gospel,"  "Preach  Christ,"  are  often  used  as 
cant  phrases,  by  the  pew  to  keep  the  pulpit  from 
interfering  with  immoral  gains  and  immoral 
pleasures,  by  the  pulpit  to  emphasize  some 
partial  and  sectarian  test  of  orthodoxy.  John 
Wesley  protested  against  what  were  "vulgarly 


204  A  Living  Message 

called  Gospel  sermons."  With  the  satire  of 
a  Sydney  Smith  he  pictures  'Hhe  pert,  self- 
sufficient"  men  who  talk  loudly  of  "Christ  and 
His  blood  or  justification  by  faith"  and  the 
"hearers  cry  out,  What  a  fine  Gospel  sermon." 
"Preaching  Christ"  has  a  much  larger  meaning 
than  some  who  glibly  talk  of  it  ever  think.  The 
Gospel  is  indeed  "the  plain  man's  pathway  to 
heaven."  Christ  is  so  simple  that  a  child  may 
know  and  love,  and  He  is  "the  eternal  contem- 
porary of  the  saints  and  sages  of  every  age." 
He  must  be  held  up  as  the  friend  of  sinners  and 
as  the  master  of  human  life.  His  grace  can  save 
to  the  uttermost,  and  His  principles  are  absolute 
and  universal  in  the  affairs  of  the  individual 
and  in  the  manifold  and  complex  relations  of 
society. 

It  is  a  wonderful  thing  to  preach  Christ. 
Surely  the  pulpit  has  not  reached  the  full  measure 
of  the  thought.  Even  the  aged  Apostle  con- 
fessed, "We  know  in  part  and  we  prophesy  in 
part."  The  Scriptures  speak  of  Him.  History 
is  His  pathway.  Literature  is  full  of  His  in- 
spiration. All  thought,  endeavor,  progress, 
speaks  of  Him  who  gives  it  life,  color,  purpose. 
Nature  is  His.  Her  manifold  messages  are  His 
voices,  and  her  forces  are  His  servants. 

The  man  who  has  this  conception  cannot  but 
preach  a  living  message.    To  preach  the  Gospel 


A  Living  Message  205 

is  to  preach  Christ  in  all  His  relations  to  the 
Bible,  to  the  world,  and  to  humanity.  Such  a 
spirit  sees  Him  everywhere,  and  labors  and  waits 
for  the  perfect  revelation. 

Christ  is  the  Alpha  and  Omega  of  theological 
culture  as  He  is  of  Christian  experience.  "That 
I  may  know  Him"  should  be  the  great  endeavor 
of  every  student  for  the  ministry  as  it  was  the 
single  purpose  and  passion  of  the  Apostle  Paul. 
He  will  glorify  all  learning  and  all  learning  should 
bring  its  tribute  to  Him.  "It  will  be  a  hard 
day,"  says  Dr.  Alexander  Whyte  of  Edinburgh, 
"when  I  cannot  make  a  straight  path  from  any 
field  of  study  to  the  Cross  of  Christ." 

"To  know  Christ"  involves  moral  conformity 
as  well  as  intellectual  apprehension;  there  is 
no  other  spiritual  knowledge  save  that  which 
comes  from  the  union  of  head  and  heart  and 
will,  the  knowledge  of  experience.  The  moral 
test  of  the  prophet  is  inseparable  from  the 
doctrinal.  "Not  every  one  that  saith  Lord, 
Lord,"  are  the  warning  words  of  Christ.  "Not 
every  one  that  speaketh  in  the  Spirit  is  a 
prophet,"  is  the  rule  laid  down  in  the  "Teach- 
ing of  the  Twelve  Apostles,"  "but  only  if  he 
have  the  behavior  of  the  Lord."  The  life  of  the 
prophet  speaks  as  loudly  as  his  word. 

Therefore,  as  sincere  learners  (for  that  is  the 
very  picture  of  a  prophet)  we  are  to  practise 


206  A  Living  Message 

the  presence  of  Christ,  not  suffering  ourselves 
to  accept  any  truth  without  honest  application 
to  self,  striving  to  become  all  that  the  truth  is 
fitted  to  make  us.  Religious  truth  must  be 
present  in  life  before  it  can  be  definitely  present 
in  thought  and  find  warm  and  persuasive  utter- 
ance in  speech.  "Realize  in  experience,"  says 
Dr.  Dale,  "  without  haste  and  impatience,  the 
contents  of  the  Christian  revelation,  and  then  you 
will  be  able  both  to  think  and  to  state  them." 
Growth  in  the  grace  and  knowledge  of  Christ 
will  give  the  prophet's  message  and  help  to  make 
it  a  word  of  living  and  life-giving  power. 


X 

THE   AIM   OF  THE   MESSAGE 


OUTLINE 

The  Gospel  of  a  Person  especially  adapted  to  our  age. 
Christ  gives  the  Abundant  Life:   this  the  Aim  of  the  Message. 

Paul's  doctrine  of  reconciliation  expressed  in  terms  of  life. 

John  interprets  life  in  terms  of  love. 
Christ's  truth  of  Life  the  completion  of  prophetic  teaching. 

The  Old  Testament  teaches  the  meaning  of  a  righteous  life. 

Christ  adds  the  graces  of  the  Spirit  to  the  moral  qualities 
of  life. 

The  fullest  life  the  aim  of  the  Gospel  message. 
The  Message  of  Life  to  be  full  and  harmonious,  free  from  par- 
tial and  undue  emphasis. 

Not  as  chiefly  escape  from  penalty. 

Not  to  be  identified  with  subjective  states. 

Not  adequately  interpreted  in  terms  of  future  bliss. 
Christ's  Truth  of  Life  to  be  measured  by  spiritual  terms. 

"Eternal  life."     "Christianity  is  God's  way  of  making  a 


References: 

Drummond.     "The  Ideal  Life." 

Peabody.     "Christ  and  the  Christian  character.' 

Johnson.     "The  Ideal  Ministry."     Lect.  2. 


208 


X 

THE  AIM  OF  THE  MESSAGE 

The  last  lecture  dwelt  upon  the  special  mes- 
sage of  the  preacher.  It  is  what  Dr.  Henry 
van  Dyke  well  calls  the  Gospel  of  a  Person. 
Christianity  is  the  religion  of  a  Person.  Christ 
has  been  the  theme  of  the  best  preaching  of 
every  age.  He  is  especially  adapted  to  the 
need  of  our  own  age.  The  person  of  Christ 
awakens  the  true  selfhood  in  men.  In  the 
time  when  the  sense  of  personal  responsibility 
is  dimmed  by  scientific  and  philosophic  thought, 
Christ  awakens  the  fact  and  sacredness  of  per- 
sonality and  makes  conscience  sensitive  and 
authoritative.  When  speculative  doubt  blocks 
the  way  of  faith  for  many  thoughtful  lives, 
Christ  stands  as  the  best  life,  the  largest  truth, 
the  acknowledged  master,  and  obedience  to 
Him  as  the  only  path  of  spiritual  knowledge. 
To  preach  Christ  is  the  comprehensive,  inspiring 
message  of  the  pulpit.  Not  a  narrow,  technical, 
sectarian  Christ,  but  the  breadth  of  His  life; 
Christ  in  relation  to  the  Scriptures,  to  nature, 
and  to  human  interests ;   in  that  fulness  of  rela- 

p  209 


210  The  Aim  of  the  Message 

tion  which  He  has  called  the  "  Kingdom  of  God." 
The  essence  of  the  message  then  is  the  Person  of 
Christ.  But  this  does  not  answer  the  whole 
question  as  to  the  message.  There  are  many- 
truths  connected  with  the  Person  of  Christ,  and 
these  truths  are  held  in  different  proportion  by- 
different  men.  What  are  the  essential  truths, 
the  sum  and  substance  of  the  message,  that 
every  man  ought  to  preach  to  gain  the  highest 
life  of  men? 

These  practical  questions  of  what  to  preach 
are  involved  in  a  larger  question  and  are  con- 
ditioned by  it.  What  is  the  aim  of  the  Gospel 
messaged  What  did  Christ  come  to  do?  The 
various  answers  of  the  Gospels  are  adaptations 
to  the  various  natures  and  experiences  of  men. 
But  the  word  that  seems  to  take  in  all  of  man 
and  his  relations  is  found  in  the  tenth  chapter 
of  John.  "I  am  come  that  ye  might  have  life 
and  have  it  abundantly."  Life  is  the  need  and 
mystery  of  man. 

"  'Tis  life  whereof  our  nerves  are  scant, 
More  life  and  fuller  that  we  want." 

What  is  life?  Every  thoughtful  man  feels  the 
impossibility  of  reducing  it  to  a  definition  or  a 
formula.  And  when  it  seems  to  baffle  us  and 
we  cry  out  over  its  imperfection,  —  and  with 
only  strength  enough  to  cry,  "What  is  life?"  — 


The  Aim  of  the  Message  211 

we  feel  that  Christ  knows  Kfe,  its  height  and  its 
depth,  its  feeblest  beginning  and  its  utmost 
reach,  that  He  is  hfe  and  to  know  Him  is  to 
have  Hfe. 

The  Hfe  of  any  organism  depends  upon  har- 
mony with  its  environment.  And  this  bio- 
logical law  has  its  analogy  in  the  life  of  man. 
God  is  the  true  environment  of  the  soul :  nature, 
the  sensible  expression  of  God  and  in  which  He 
lives  and  rules,  the  world  of  beings  that  carry 
out  His  purpose,  the  forces  within  and  without 
that  express  His  will.  The  life  of  man  depends 
upon  obedience  to  the  laws  of  life,  physical, 
mental,  and  spiritual,  God's  will  in  nature  and 
redemption.  In  harmony  with  God  is  life; 
out  of  harmony  with  God  is  death.  If  the  fact 
of  God  is  granted,  this  is  self-evident. 

Moreover,  it  needs  no  proof  that  man  is  not 
in  perfect  harmony  with  God.  He  goes  aside 
from  the  right.  He  comes  short  of  the  best. 
Sins  of  omission  and  commission  every  honest 
man  must  confess,  as  in  Bishop  Usher's  prayer. 
This  is  sin  —  to  fail  to  do,  or  so  imperfectly  to 
do,  the  will  of  God.  So  Paul's  definition  of 
Christ's  aim  is  the  same  truth  put  into  new  form. 
He  speaks  from  the  standpoint  of  man's  need. 
The  essence  of  his  Gospel  is  expressed  in  the 
great  phrase,  "God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the 
world  unto  Himself." 


212  The  Aim  of  the  Message 

Reconciliation  in  the  terms  of  life  is  character. 
Christ  is  the  author  and  finisher  of  faith,  the 
goal  of  all  endeavor.  To  have  life  is  likeness 
to  Christ.  To  Paul,  moral  progress  is  always 
Christward.  "Till  we  all  attain  unto  a  full- 
grown  man,  unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of 
the  fulness  of  Christ." 

Life  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  spiritual  nature 
of  man  is  the  aim  of  the  Gospel  preacher.  It  is 
spiritual  life,  in  contrast  to  the  sensible,  sensu- 
ous, temporary,  superficial  that  men  seek,  and 
thereby  cheat  themselves  into  thinking  that 
they  have  life. 

The  Apostle  John  defines  life  as  the  love  of 
the  Father.  "Love  not  the  world,"  he  says, 
"neither  the  things  that  are  in  the  world.  If 
any  man  love  the  world,  the  love  of  the  Father 
is  not  in  him."  ^ 

The  world  that  is  condemned  because  opposed 
to  true  life,  is  not  the  world  of  nature,  which  God 
has  pronounced  very  good,  and  which  may 
minister  to  the  spirit  of  man.  In  the  lowly 
daisy  there  abides  "some  concord  with  human- 
ity." And  the  man  who  truly  loves  nature  and 
is  in  fellowship  with  her  life  finds  the  truths  of 
singleness  and  simplicity  and  obedience  and  the 
truest  ministry  to  the  Spirit. 

It  is  not  the  world  of  human  life  that  is  con- 
1  1  John  ii.  15-17. 


The  Aim  of  the  Message  213 

demned,  for  Christianity  has  given  worth  to  the 
humblest  man,  and  interest  in  men  is  mark  of 
the  higher  Hfe.  Nor  is  it  the  world  of  human 
activities  that  is  opposed  to  life,  the  sum  of 
earthly  plans  and  achievements,  for  these  are  but 
the  expression  of  the  true  energy  of  man,  and 
may  minister  to  the  perfection  of  the  Kingdom. 

"Worldliness,"  as  Robertson  says,  "is  deter- 
mined by  the  spirit  of  the  life,  not  the  objects 
with  which  the  life  is  conversant.  It  is  not  the 
flesh,  nor  the  eye,  nor  life,  which  are  forbidden, 
but  it  is  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  and  the  lust  of  the 
eye,  and  the  pride  of  life.  It  is  not  this  earth, 
nor  the  men  who  inhabit  it,  nor  the  sphere  of 
our  legitimate  activity,  that  we  may  not  love; 
but  the  way  in  which  the  love  is  given  which 
constitutes  worldliness."  To  know  that  we 
are  God's  children,  and  live  in  God's  world,  to 
recognize  Him  and  to  delight  in  His  law,  this  is 
life.  "He  that  doeth  the  will  of  God  abideth 
forever." 

Christ's  teaching  of  life  is  the  fulfilment  and 
completion  of  a  long  line  of  teaching  and  training. 

It  is  significant  that  the  Old  Testament  has 
only  glimpses  of  a  future  life,  the  light  seeming 
to  shine  on  only  here  and  there  a  mountain  peak. 
Whether  the  truth  of  immortality  was  grasped 
by  only  a  few  advanced  souls,  or  whether  it 
was  the  general  background  of  thought,  vague 


214  The  Aim  of  the  Message 

and  clouded  with  earthly  conceptions  as  in  so 
many  other  races,  it  would  be  hard  to  say.  It 
is  certain,  however,  that  the  purpose  of  the  Old 
Testament  teachings  and  rites  is  something  dif- 
ferent and  preliminary  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
future.  Its  great  word  is  righteousness  —  to 
secure  a  right  life  for  men  on  the  earth.  The 
sense  of  the  relation  of  human  life  to  the  supreme 
life,  and  the  criticalness  of  this  relation,  is  con- 
stantly taught  by  precept  and  example.  The 
thought  of  God  must  be  lifted  up  above  the  gross 
and  sensual  conceptions  of  idolatry  to  one  who 
is  supreme  in  power  and  authority  because 
supreme  in  moral  qualities.  The  fickle  and  self- 
ish wills  of  earthly  deities,  projection  of  man's 
heart,  must  yield  to  one  will  as  certain  as  the 
course  of  the  stars  and  the  procession  of  the 
seasons,  and  connected  vitally  and  minutely 
with  all  that  concerns  human  life.  The  I  am, 
the  One,  the  Supreme,  the  Holy  One,  the 
righteous  God  who  has  made  the  world  and  man, 
who  has  made  laws  to  govern  life  and  the  social 
forms  of  the  family  and  the  State,  this  is  the 
revelation  of  the  Hebrew  race,  the  teaching  of 
the  Old  Testament.  Its  purpose  is  the  devel- 
opment of  the  conscience  of  the  race,  the  sense 
of  right  and  wrong,  through  relation  to  the 
mighty,  wise,  and  righteous  God. 
The  obligations  of  life  flow  from  the  source 


The  Aim  of  the  Message  215 

of  life.  Men  must  strive  to  be  like  their  con- 
ceptions of  God.  They  must  be  under  the 
sanction  of  His  moral  majesty.  It  is  a  moral 
world  in  which  men  live,  and  they  must  strive 
for  a  life  in  harmony  with  the  moral  rule,  the 
just  and  holy  God.  There  are  beautiful  glimpses 
of  a  closer  and  tenderer  relation,  the  shepherd 
love  and  care  of  the  Psalms,  the  wedded  love 
that  still  lives  though  rejected  and  outraged 
as  in  Hosea.  But  the  central  thought  of  the 
Old  Testament  revelation  is  the  unity  and  holi- 
ness of  God ;  the  great  aim  is  to  bring  man  to  a 
righteous  life,  to  lay  the  moral  basis  for  the 
higher  life  of  the  race,  to  give  man  a  sensitive 
and  true  conscience,  to  make  the  spirit  of  man 
the  candle  of  the  Lord,  so  that  life  may  at  last 
be  lighted  with  a  divine  light.  It  educates  the 
soul  to  a  conception  of  a  higher  life  and  to  a 
hunger  for  it. 

Christ  carries  on  the  prophetic  thought.  He 
completes  the  conception  of  life,  and  gives  the 
truths  and  the  motives  that  shall  help  men  to 
realize  it.  The  holy  ruler  is  now  the  ''right- 
eous Father";  the  subject  is  now  the  son. 
The  sanctions  of  law  become  the  obligations  of 
love.  On  the  moral  basis  of  life  rise  the  quali- 
ties of  the  Spirit.  Righteousness  is  not  only 
obedience  to  law  written  in  conscience  and  in 
the  very  nature  of  things,  but  the  fulfilment  of 


216  The  Aim  of  the  Message 

the  higher  law  of  love.  In  Christ  mercy  and 
truth  have  met  together,  righteousness  and 
peace  have  kissed  each  other.  "All's  law,  yet 
all's  love."  The  Christian  conception  of  life 
and  type  of  life  is  distinctly  higher  than  that  of 
the  Old  Testament,  and  is  the  peculiar  product 
of  the  life  and  spirit  of  Christ.  On  the  great 
elemental,  universal  qualities,  that  have  their 
embodiment  in  the  moral  law,  —  reverence,  jus- 
tice, obedience,  fortitude,  honor,  —  rise  the 
finer  qualities  of  the  Spirit :  the  sense  of  im- 
perfection, the  sorrow  for  moral  failure,  the  pas- 
sion for  righteousness,  the  loving  recognition 
of  the  moral  discipline  of  life,  the  singleness  of 
devotion  to  that  which  is  excellent,  the  enthu- 
siasm that  makes  life  a  service  for  the  spread  of 
truth,  the  trust  that  accepts  any  cost  for  the 
good  of  man.  The  portrait  of  the  disciple,  of 
citizenship  in  the  Kingdom  of  God,  drawn  for 
us  in  the  short  and  heavenly  lines  of  the  Beati- 
tudes, is  life  as  Christ  lives  it  and  reveals  it, 
and  as  He  would  help  us  to  realize  it.  And 
this  is  to  be  the  aim  of  every  message  of  the 
Christian  pulpit,  life  as  Christ  conceives  it,  and 
as  Christ  alone  can  give  it. 

We  are  to  avoid  giving  a  partial  or  one-sided 
emphasis  to  the  message.  Christ's  truth  of  life 
is  often  preached  as  though  it  were  an  escape 
from  penalty.    The  life  of  man  as  we  know  it  is 


The  Aim  of  the  Message  217 

a  violation  of  the  moral  law  and  a  failure  even  to 
perceive  the  higher  realm  of  the  Spirit.  And 
goodness  means  moral  order ;  and  sin  —  the 
least  sin  —  is  so  far  moral  disorder  and  thereby 
tends  to  separate  the  soul  from  fellowship  with 
God.  It  is  a  world  of  law,  and  sin  brings  its  self- 
inflicted  penalty.  How  to  escape  the  shame 
of  moral  failure,  that  the  soul  has  been  untrue 
to  its  best  self;  how  to  escape  the  guilt  of  sin, 
that  the  soul  has  been  untrue  to  its  relation  to 
God, — is  the  question  that  weighs  upon  the  mind. 
When  the  soul  gazes  upon  the  pitiful  contrast 
between  the  life  of  a  son  and  its  own  blind, 
selfish  life,  the  tragic  word  of  the  Psalm  is  none 
too  strong.  "The  hand  of  God  was  heavy  upon 
me;  and  my  moisture  was  turned  into  the 
drought  of  summer."  Christ's  word  of  for- 
giveness seems  to  come  as  the  best  and  greatest 
word  to  man.  To  have  Christ  say,  ''Thy  sins 
be  forgiven  thee,"  "Neither  do  I  condemn  thee; 
go  and  sin  no  more,"  seems  the  good  news  of 
salvation.  It  is  the  turning  point  of  life,  the 
assurance  that  God  trusts  the  soul,  that  fellow- 
ship is  renewed,  and  the  Father's  house  is  once 
more  open  to  man.  And  the  life  that  Christ 
gives  may  easily  be  identified  with  its  early 
stages,  and  the  emphasis  be  placed  upon  the 
removal  of  penalty  to  the  neglect  of  larger 
truth.  "There  is  now  no  condemnation"  may 
become  the  Gospel  message. 


218  The  Aim  of  the  Message 

Again,  Christ's  gift  of  life  may  largely  be 
thought  of  as  subjective  states,  the  peace  of  mind 
from  the  assurance  of  sin  forgiven,  the  joy  of 
fellowship  with  God,  the  hope  that  this  gift  of 
life  may  not  fail.  And  the  emphasis  may  so  be 
placed  upon  feeling,  that  the  soul  may  expect 
unnatural  marks  of  the  work  of  Christ,  and  fail- 
ing to  receive  may  be  left  in  doubt,  or  driven 
to  abnormal  and  sensational  ways  of  sustaining 
the  spiritual  life.  Feeling  is  but  the  shadow 
of  the  man,  as  Henry  Drummond  so  strikingly 
taught.  If  we  do  the  will,  the  appropriate 
feelings  may  be  trusted  to  follow  the  acts  of 
obedience.  And  once  more  — future  bliss,  the 
joys  of  heaven,  are  often  pictured  as  the 
goal  of  life.  In  more  than  one  age  this 
world  has  seemed  very  evil,  and  Christ's  gift 
of  life  hung  above  it  as  a  beautiful  hope  of 
the  future.  And  to  multitudes,  "  weary  of 
earth  and  laden  with  sin,"  the  promise  of  a 
future  life,  free  from  the  perverting  and  crip- 
pling influences  of  evil,  has  seemed  the  great 
boon  of  the  Gospel. 

Christ's  truth  of  life  has  been  interpreted  in 
terms  of  human  desire,  and  not  in  the  abundant 
life  Christ  is  able  to  bestow  upon  men.  Life  as 
salvation  has  been  conceived  of  under  the  terms 
of  a  transaction  rather  than  the  training  of  a 
wise  and  loving:  Father. 


The  Aim  of  the  Message  219 

Christ  teaches  salvation  as  a  Kfe  that  has 
fellowship  with  God.  It  escapes  from  penalty 
because  it  turns  to  the  Father  and  gains  the 
victory  of  the  filial  spirit.  It  has  the  joy  of 
salvation  because  it  is  sustained  by  the  free 
spirit  of  a  Son.  Heaven  is  a  glad  expectation 
because  it  has  been  partaking  of  the  heavenly 
life.  The  future  of  the  sons  of  God  is  but  the 
reasonable  hope  from  their  present  life.  The 
life  that  Christ  gives  has  the  deathless  qualities 
of  faith,  hope,  and  love ;  it  does  the  will  of  God 
and  so  partakes  of  His  ageless  life.  It  is  meas- 
ured by  terms  of  spiritual  being  and  not  by  time. 
It  is  seonian,  the  new  age  life;  eternal  life  be- 
cause it  has  the  life  that  God  gives  and  cannot 
be  measured  or  limited  by  the  flight  of  years. 
The  present  has  relation  to  the  future  as  the 
blossom  to  the  fruit.  The  act  of  forgiveness  is 
a  single  step  in  the  long  process  of  life.  Eternal 
life  in  its  beginning  and  growth  is  the  constant 
act  of  God's  grace.  The  moral  realm  is  blended, 
not  lost,  in  the  realm  of  love.  The  righteous 
and  loving  character  of  God  is  manifest  in  the 
life  of  sons.  The  aim  of  the  Gospel  is  to  quicken 
in  men  the  sense  of  sonship  and  help  them  to 
live  lives  worthy  of  it.  It  is  to  awaken  the 
sense  of  spiritual  manhood  and  furnish  the 
means  and  motives  for  its  fullest  realization. 
Christianity  is  God's  way  of  making  a  man. 


XI 
THE  CONTENTS  OF  THE  MESSAGE 


OUTLINE 

The  Person  and  Presence  of  God  the  first  truth  of  the  message. 

God  not  to  be  proved,  but  manifested. 

God  best  made  known  in  Jesus  Christ. 
The  truth  of  Man's  Nature  to  be  taught,  to  awaken  spiritual 
desire. 

Jesus  the  best  revelation  of  man,of  his  need  and  possibility. 

The  moral  sense  awakes  in  the  presence  of  Jesus. 
The  truth  of  the  Atonement  in  preaching. 

Its  prominence  in  Apostolic  preaching. 

The  difficulties  of  preaching  the  doctrine  to  the  modern 
mind. 

It  must  be  preached  as  a  vital  reality. 

The  justice  and  love  of  God  should  both  be  expressed. 

It  should  give  the  assurance  of  sin  forgiven. 

It  should  express  a  law  of  life. 
Faith  in  its  various  aspects  in  the  Gospel  Message. 

Faith  must  be  preached  as  belief,  aspiration,  obedience, 
summed  up  in  committal. 
The  Holy  Spirit  an  essential  truth  of  the  new  life. 

Essentially  a  truth  of  Christian  experience. 
The  Resurrection  in  the  pulpit  message. 
The  Spirit  of  the  pulpit  message. 

The  preaching  should  be  positive  and  constructive. 

And  in  faith  that  men  will  respond  to  the  message. 

References  : 

Brooks.     "Lectures  on  Preaching."     Lect.  6-8. 
Forsythe.     "  Positive  Preaching  and  the  Modern 

Mind." 
Tucker.      "The  Making  and  Unmaking  of  the 

Preacher."     Lect.  5. 
Campbell-Morgan.     "The  Holy  Spirit." 
Campbell.     "The  Heart  of  the  Gospel." 
Stalker.         "The    Preacher    and    his    Models." 

Lect.  9. 
Watson.     "The  Cure  of  Souls."     Lect.  4-5. 
Jackson.       "The   Message   of    the   Modern  Min- 
ister." 
222 


XI 

THE  CONTENTS  OF  THE  MESSAGE 

Eternal  life  is  the  aim  of  the  Gospel  message. 
How  shall  the  aim  of  the  preacher's  message 
be  gained?  How  shall  the  person  of  Christ  be 
presented,  the  truths  connected  with  Him,  so 
that  men  shall  partake  of  His  life  ? 

The  person  and  presence  of  God  must  be  the 
first  truth  the  preacher  presents.  Life  may  be 
defined  as  fellowship  with  God;  and  the  sense 
of  God  and  the  need  of  God  must  be  awakened 
in  the  soul.  We  are  not  to  try  to  prove  God 
by  argument.  The  most  conclusive  arguments 
on  theism  can  only  strengthen  faith,  not  create 
it.  We  are  simply  to  try  to  manifest  God  — 
or  open  the  eye  that  God  may  be  seen.  A  man 
may  deny  that  there  is  music  in  a  sonata  of  Bee- 
thoven or  a  nocturne  of  Chopin.  But  if  you  can 
play  the  masterpiece,  really  interpret  the  soul 
of  the  artist,  the  man  will  say  quickly  enough 
there  is  music  in  it.  Every  soul  has  the  latent 
sense  of  God,  that  can  be  brought  out  if  God  is 
truly  interpreted. 

223 


224  The  Contents  of  the  Message 

Men  are  made  conscious  of  God,  the  latent 
faith  is  made  living,  as  they  understand  Jesus. 
To  present  Christ  in  His  purity  that  was  a  pas- 
sion for  goodness;  His  love,  never  limited  by 
taste  and  appreciation  and  reward,  but  going 
out  to  the  unlovely  and  unthankful;  His  for- 
giveness, with  no  bitterness  and  resentment,  but 
full  of  pity  for  the  blindness  and  hardness  of 
men;  His  humility,  that  had  no  self-conscious 
virtue,  but  freely  took  the  office  of  a  servant, 
is  to  make  men  know  that  they  are  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Divine  life.  The  character  of  Jesus 
throws  light  upon  the  person  of  God.  He  is 
always  conscious  of  God.  His  life  is  so  single 
and  consistent  that  every  word  that  He  speaks, 
every  action  the  most  spontaneous  and  un- 
premeditated, makes  known  this  God-conscious- 
ness, reveals  God  to  us.  He  begins  His  young 
life  with  a  sense  of  mission  from  God  and  His 
last  word  is  a  sense  of  completeness.  To  Jesus 
the  world  is  full  of  God.  The  processes  of 
nature  are  proofs  of  the  Father's  love  and  care. 
And  men,  evil  as  they  are,  are  the  children  of 
God,  and  little  children  are  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  And  Jesus  revives  and  strengthens  in 
our  hearts  the  faith  in  God.  He  does  not  argue 
about  God  and  try  to  convince  the  reason.  He 
takes  the  fact  of  God  for  granted,  and  also  the 
fact  that  we,  if  we  are  to  live  the  lives  of  men, 


The  Contents  of  the  Message  225 

must  have  faith  in  God.  He  simply  speaks  out 
of  his  own  experience  of  God.  He  simply  reveals 
the  traits  that  are  most  like  God.  And  in  the 
presence  of  Jesus  it  is  easy  for  men  to  believe 
in  God.  Out  of  the  mystery  of  being,  from  all 
the  perplexing  problems  of  nature,  and  more 
than  all  from  the  dark  questions  of  human  ex- 
perience, stands  forth  this  simple,  radiant, 
heavenly  life  of  Jesus.  He  rivets  the  appre- 
hension of  God  upon  the  heart  and  conscience. 

We  are  to  preach  Christ's  truth  about  the 
Fatherhood  of  God.  We  shall  be  able  to  reveal 
God  if  we  truly  present  the  Christ.  "And  this 
is  life  eternal  that  they  might  know  Thee  the 
only  true  God,  and  Him  whom  Thou  didst  send, 
even  Jesus  Christ."  * 

The  truth  of  man  must  be  taught,  man  a  son, 
though  a  prodigal  son.  We  must  do  just  what 
Jesus  did,  awaken  the  sense  of  spiritual  worth, 
create  a  hunger  and  thirst  in  the  soul.  "If 
thou  knewest  the  gift  of  God  and  who  it  is  that 
saith  unto  thee,  Give  Me  to  drink,  thou  wouldst 
have  asked  of  Him  and  He  would  have  given 
thee  living  water."  Here  again  the  best  reve- 
lation of  man's  nature  is  in  the  person  of  Jesus. 
Out  of  His  life  comes  the  interpretation  of  life. 
The  meaning  of  our  lives  is  made  known  by 
countless  common  things.  The  daily  things 
*  John  xvii.  3. 
Q 


226  The  Contents  of  the  Message 

that  make  up  a  man's  life  begin  to  take  their 
true  shape,  a  wayside  word,  a  cup  of  water,  a 
friendly  meal.  Duty  gets  its  real  significance  in 
His  "My  meat  is  to  do  the  will  of  Him  that 
sent  Me."  Friendship  finds  its  motive  and  its 
bond  in  the  "love  unto  the  end."  Pain  and 
sorrow  become  the  ministers  of  beauty  and 
strength  by  the  fellowship  of  His  suffering. 
Service  gets  its  vision  and  its  motive  when  He, 
"knowing  He  was  come  from  God  and  went  to 
God,"  takes  a  towel  and  girds  himself  and  does 
the  work  of  a  servant.  We  get  the  sense  of 
proportion  as  we  stand  before  the  life  of  Christ. 
We  get  true  self -estimates  and  "nobler  loves 
and  nobler  cares."  The  very  atmosphere  grows 
luminous.  We  are  able  to  see  life  clear  and  see 
life  whole. 

The  moral  sense  awakes.  By  self-compari- 
son men  never  truly  feel  their  need.  They 
may  live  in  such  false  estimates  as  never  to 
catch  a  true  view  of  themselves.  But  before 
Christ  they  feel  their  sin.  They  know  what 
moral  dwarfs  they  are.  "Depart  from  me. 
Lord,  for  I  am  a  sinful  man,"  is  the  instinctive 
cry  of  every  honest  heart.  And  every  added 
conception  of  Christ  will  only  help  to  sharpen  a 
man's  self-estimates.  The  impulsive  man  who 
gives  the  instinctive  cry  of  need  also  makes  the 
spontaneous   confession   of   faith,    "To   whom 


The  Contents  of  the  Message  227 

shall  we  go?  Thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal 
life."  Repelled  by  our  sin,  we  are  drawn  by 
His  gracious  and  beneficent  life,  A  man  not 
only  sees  himself  in  Christ,  but  the  man  he  ought 
to  be  and  can  be.  It  is  the  vision  of  possible 
sonship.  If  we  would  convince  men  of  sin  and 
give  them  a  longing  for  a  better  life,  then  we 
must  make  Christ  live  before  them  in  His  simple, 
gracious,  heavenly  life. 

What  place  shall  the  Atonement  have  in  our 
preaching?  It  is  found  in  the  Scriptures,  the 
red  Hne  runs  through  them;  it  is  found  in  life, 
there  is  a  vicarious  element  in  all  true  progress ; 
and  it  must  be  found  in  our  sermons  if  we  preach 
the  Gospel  in  its  simplicity  and  fulness.  Christ 
spoke  of  His  death  as  the  great  attractive  power. 
It  was  certainly  the  burden  of  the  Apostolic 
preaching.  Paul  gloried  in  it.  John  and  Peter 
unmistakably  taught  it.  It  has  been  found 
in  all  the  great  preaching  of  the  Church.  Take 
the  Cross  out,  and  you  have  no  Gospel.  Without 
the  Cross  Christianity  is  only  the  refinement 
of  human  reason  about  spiritual  things,  an  ethi- 
cal education,  and  not  the  redemptive  power  of 
God.  It  is  not  necessary  that  the  preacher 
present  a  particular  philosophy  of  it,  though 
every  man  will  try  to  think  it  through.  There 
seems  to  be  no  consistent  theory  in  the  New 
Testament  writers;  they  present  different  sides 


228  The  Contents  of  the  Message 

of  the  truth  to  different  minds,  to  men  who 
have  had  different  training.  And  it  is  possible 
that  states  of  training  and  mind  corresponding 
to  the  historic  stages  of  Hebraism  and  Hellen- 
ism, of  the  Monarchic  view  and  the  Democratic, 
may  always  be  in  our  congregations.  It  is  very 
certain  that  these  different  states  are  now  among 
our  people.  And  the  seemingly  opposing  views 
and  trainings  make  the  most  difficult  problem  of 
preaching.  Dr.  Berry  of  Wolverhampton,  who 
was  called  by  Plymouth  Church  to  succeed 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  in  his  first  years  preached 
the  sacrifice  of  Christ  as  expressing  the  suffer- 
ing love  of  the  Father  for  the  wayward  child. 
But  he  found,  as  he  thought,  that  this  more 
refined  and  subtle  philosophy  did  not  take  hold 
upon  the  conscience  of  helpless  and  hopeless 
men,  and  so  he  was  led  to  preach  a  more  simple 
and  objective  theory,  that  in  some  way  Christ 
stands  in  the  place  of  sinful  men,  and  that  the 
Cross  assures  Divine  forgiveness  and  help  to  the 
man  who  will  look  to  it.  He  found  that  this 
actually  gave  peace  to  guilty  consciences,  and 
new  energy  to  hopeless  hearts.  Mr.  R.  J. 
Campbell  of  the  City  Temple,  London,  who  in 
a  city  of  six  million  people  can  draw  to  his 
ministry  certain  select  minds,  no  doubt  helps 
many  to  keep  their  religious  life,  who  under 
old  forms  of  truth  would  be  agnostic.    But  his 


The  Contents  of  the  Message  229 

theistic  monism  is  simply  the  vaguest  unreality 
to  nine-tenths  of  the  English  mind  marked  for 
its  practical  and  realistic  sense. 

It  is  possible  to  hold  and  express  a  theory  of 
the  Atonement  that  shall  harmonize  with  the 
philosophy  of  evolution.  But  is  it  best  con- 
stantly to  preach  the  truth  in  this  form  ?  How 
many  of  the  people  know  or  care  about  the 
philosophy  ?  It  may  be  the  truest  form  to-day. 
But  who  dare  say  that  it  is  the  aX'qdeia,  the 
unveiled  reality,  and  that  even  the  immediate 
future  may  not  change  the  form  ?  The  question 
is,  will  the  truth  put  in  biological  forms  convince 
the  sinner  of  his  sin,  and  lead  him  to  repentance 
and  faith?  Christianity  makes  God  the  great 
missionary  force  to  reach  the  downmost  man, 
and  our  preaching  must  stand  the  test  of  its 
power  to  reach  men  in  their  sins.  Four  elements 
should  be  in  our  preaching  of  the  Atonement, 
whatever  be  our  theory  of  it. 

We  should  present  it  as  a  vital  reality  of  the 
Gospel,  inseparable  from  any  truthful  inter- 
pretation of  the  Scriptures,  having  manifold 
expression  and  correspondence  in  human  his- 
tory, and  as  a  necessary  means  of  salvation. 

In  our  preaching  of  the  Atonement  we  should 
try  to  reveal  both  the  justice  and  the  love  of  God. 
The  Kingship  of  God  is  not  lost  in  the  more  vital 
and  noble  conception  of  the  Fatherhood.     Love 


230  The  Contents  of  the  Message 

is  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world.  God  is  love. 
But  we  can  never  take  law  out  of  love.  We 
cannot  do  this  of  the  best  human  love,  without 
leaving  it  earthly,  sensual,  devilish. 

"  You  know  how  love  is  incompatible 
With  falsehood,  —  purifies,  assimilates, 
All  other  passions  to  itself." 

And  Christianity  has  interpreted  the  divine 
meaning  of  love  and  given  it  a  heart  of 
strength;  it  has  even  given  it  a  new  word, 
free  from  all  taint  of  corruption.  Love  is  not 
infinite  good-nature,  but  goodness,  and  good- 
ness in  its  very  essence  is  moral  order.  Love 
is  not  a  kindly  sentiment;  it  is  a  principle  of 
conduct,  a  conception  of  duty,  a  purpose  of 
service.  Love  can  never  be  an  "  unerring  light," 
unless  it  is  also  the  voice  of  duty,  and  wears 
"the  Godhead's  most  benignant  grace."  The 
highest  Fatherhood  is  the  one  that  has  the  high- 
est conception  of  the  welfare  of  life,  the  moral 
basis  of  character,  and  the  eternal  principles  on 
which  all  welfare  rests.  The  sacrifice  of  Christ 
tells  us  that  law  and  love  are  inseparable,  and 
that  the  love  of  God  must  meet  in  some  way 
the  sense  of  right  in  God's  heart  and  in  man's. 

Then  we  should  present  the  Atonement  in  a 
way  to  give  men  the  assurance  that  sin  is  forgiven, 
and  lead  them  to  act  upon  it.    Forgiveness 


The  Contents  of  the  Message  231 

needs  to  be  taught,  not  as  the  sudden  removal  of 
the  love  of  sin,  the  miraculous  killing  of  the  old 
habit  of  evil,  nor  as  the  removal  of  all  the  conse- 
quences, physical  and  moral,  of  our  past  sinful 
life,  —  but  rather  as  the  restoring  of  fellowship 
between  the  child  and  the  Father.  Sin  estranges, 
it  builds  barriers,  between  the  soul  and  God; 
and  forgiveness  says  to  men  that  there  is  noth- 
ing save  your  own  unwillingness  between  your 
soul  and  God.  It  is  the  restoration  of  fellow- 
ship. 

The  Atonement  should  be  presented  in  a  way 
not  only  to  give  the  assurance  of  forgiveness,  but 
to  express  a  law  of  life.  The  Atonement,  the 
suffering  for  sin,  is  the  expression  of  true  Father- 
hood, and  such  vicarious  suffering  is  the  law  of 
life,  the  principle  of  spiritual  progress.  The 
sacrifice  of  Christ  can  be  nothing  for  the  soul, 
until  it  is  accepted  as  the  law  of  life  within  the 
soul.  In  other  words,  the  Atonement  must  not 
be  presented  in  a  mechanical  way,  but  as  God's 
way  of  spiritual  training. 

Faith  must  be  taught  as  man's  part  in  appro- 
priating the  truth  and  life  of  Christ.  It  has 
various  aspects  in  the  teaching  of  Christ.  It  is 
sometimes  synonymous  with  belief,  again  as 
equivalent  to  trust;  now  as  a  single  act  of  the 
will,  again  as  the  attitude  of  the  inner  life,  or 
even  as  the  very  capacity  of  the  soul  towards  God. 


232  The  Contents  of  the  Message 

So  faith  must  be  presented  in  every  way  to 
awaken  the  soul  in  man,  to  make  him  conscious 
of  his  capacity  and  responsibihty.  Faith  must 
be  preached  as  belief,  the  intellectual  acceptance 
of  Christ,  the  acceptance  of  evidence,  not  as 
demonstration  (spiritual  truth  cannot  be  demon- 
strated), but  as  moral  probability;  the  accept- 
ance of  that  which  promises  the  most  light  and 
Hfe. 

Faith  must  be  preached  as  aspiration,  desire, 
setting  the  affections  upon  the  ideal  that  Jesus 
stands  for,  thinking  upon  Him,  setting  Him 
before  our  face,  longing  after  His  perfections, 
striving  to  love  what  He  loves  and  hate  what 
He  hates. 

Faith  must  be  preached  as  the  act  of  the  will, 
obedience  to  the  word  of  Christ,  taking  up  the 
duties  that  belong  to  the  Christian  life,  entering 
into  the  activities  that  belong  to  a  servant  of 
Christ.  Faith  may  be  best  summed  up  as  the 
committal  of  the  life  to  the  ideal  of  character 
and  service  taught  by  Christ. 

Especially  must  the  emphasis  of  faith  be 
placed  upon  obedience,  the  acting  out  of  each 
apprehension  of  truth.  Here  is  the  critical 
point  of  our  teaching,  to  reach  conscience  and 
persuade  the  will  to  action.  "He  will  never  be 
a  preacher,"  says  Dr.  Stalker,  ''who  does  not 
know  how  to  get  at  the  conscience.     We  are 


The  Contents  of  the  Message  233 

preaching  to  the  fancy,  to  the  imagination,  to 
intellect,  to  feeling,  to  will,  and  no  doubt  all 
these  must  be  preached  to ;  but  it  is  in  the  con- 
science that  the  battle  is  to  be  won  or  lost." 
Men  know  more  than  they  will  do.  In  every 
way  men  must  be  led  to  venture  upon  the  life 
of  faith.  "Obedience  is  the  organ  of  spiritual 
knowledge."  Life  is  a  growth;  and  when  it 
ceases  to  grow,  decay  begins.  Gain  is  by  use. 
Extirpation  is  the  penalty  of  disuse. 

The  Holy  Spirit  is  an  essential  truth  of  the 
Gospel  and  a  means  of  the  new  life.  It  seems 
an  unknown  truth  to  most  young  men  and  is 
often  left  out  of  their  thoughts  and  preaching. 
But  the  older  men  grow  and  the  deeper  their 
experiences  of  religion,  the  more  they  recognize 
the  fact  that  the  Christian  life  is  a  life  of  the 
Spirit;  it  is  vain  to  look  for  the  perfection  of 
fruit  without  God's  Spirit.  And  the  word  we 
speak  and  the  service  we  render  get  their  power 
from  His  influence. 

It  is  essentially  a  truth  of  Christian  experience. 
And  the  practical  preaching  of  the  truth  centres 
around  the  exhortations,  ''Grieve  not  the 
Spirit"  and  "Quench  not  the  Spirit."  Remove 
whatever  may  hinder  the  cooperation  of  God's 
Spirit  with  yours,  for  thus  only  can  come  fulness 
and  fruitfulness  of  life.  Believe  in  the  presence 
of  God's  Spirit,  follow  the  inner  impulse  as  the 


234  The  Contents  of  the  Message 

divine  voice.    Act  out  every  new  apprehension 
of  truth. 

"  First  find  thou  truth, 
And  though  she  lead  from  beaten  path  of  men 
To  unknown  ways ; 
Her  leading  follow  straight, 
And  bide  thy  fate  at  heaven's  gate." 

And  finally  the  resurrection  has  a  place  in  the 
preaching  of  the  Christian  pulpit.  It  is  the 
proof  that  the  life  of  the  Spirit,  the  life  of  faith 
and  hope  and  love,  is  the  deathless  life ;  it  is  the 
proof  that  forgiveness  is  reasonable  and  possible 
with  God,  that  a  higher  law  rules  than  the  end- 
less round  of  sin  and  suffering,  that  the  vicarious 
life  is  the  victorious  life,  and  that  the  cost  of  life, 
its  heartbreaks  and  losses  and  partings,  has  its 
heavenly  compensation.  If  a  man  be  risen  with 
Christ,  if  he  seeks  the  life  of  the  heavenly  king- 
dom, he  has  the  evidence  of  experience  of  the 
risen  Christ,  the  promise  and  foretaste  of  the 
immortal  life. 

These  truths,  Christ's  revelation  of  God,  of 
man,  his  Sacrifice,  faith,  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
the  Immortal  Life,  are  the  essential  truths  of  the 
Gospel.  Men  will  teach  them  in  varying  degree 
and  proportion.  The  emphasis  will  be  placed 
first  on  one  truth  and  then  on  another  according 
to  the  special  condition  of  men.  But  in  some 
way  we  should  preach  them  all  that  men  may 


The  Contents  of  the  Message  235 

have  life,  the  eternal  life  that  is  through  Jesus 
Christ. 

And  two  brief  suggestions  as  to  the  spirit  of 
teaching.  Be  positive  and  constructive  in  your 
preaching.  Let  your  aim  and  spirit  be  the  sal- 
vation of  men  as  Christ's  was.  Take  no  pleas- 
ure in  destroying  even  a  superstitious  faith,  if 
you  cannot  put  a  purer  one  in  its  place.  Some 
things  cannot  be  shaken.  Criticism  cannot 
touch  the  things  that  make  for  salvation.  And 
these  are  to  be  proclaimed  with  all  the  resources 
of  mind  and  speech  and  with  all  the  enthusiasm 
of  love.  Don't  make  your  pulpit  a  game  of 
bowls,  to  see  how  many  errors  or  contrary 
opinions  you  can  knock  down.  The  polemical 
spirit  is  rarely  the  helpful  spirit. 

Put  truth  in  a  way  to  help  men  to  live.  If 
Christ  is  the  centre  and  soul,  then  He  will  be 
more  manifest.     This  is  the  test. 

Believe  that  there  is  a  spiritual  capacity  and 
desire  in  men  to  which  the  Gospel  you  preach 
bears  exact  fitness.  The  listless,  the  indifferent, 
the  critic,  the  scorner,  may  listen  to  your  word 
and  render  it  fruitless.  But  the  earnest  hearer 
will  be  there.  Men  will  listen  to  your  word  as 
for  their  life.  Preach  a  Gospel  that  saves,  and 
believe  that  men  will  respond  to  your  word. 


XII 

THE   SOCIAL  MESSAGE 


OUTLINE 

A  Saving  Gospel  must  be  for  the  Whole  Man,  and  for  all  the 

Relations  of  Man. 
The  gospel  message  must  be  put  in  terms  of  social  relation. 
The  two    extreme  views:    one  puts  stress  on  the  person, 

the  other  on  the  environment.     The  two  extremes  must 

be  harmonized. 
The  Social  Environment  conditions  the  power  of  the  Gospel  in 

saving  the  Individual. 
Social  conditions  are  to  be  changed  if  men  are  to  be  reached 

by  the  truth. 
Better  social  conditions  are  needed  to  sustain  the  new  life. 
Does  Christianity  mean  the  Redemption  of  the  whole  life  of 

man? 
Reasons  why  the  interpreters  of  the  Bible  have  failed  to 

give  its  social  teachings. 
The  Social  Message  an  essential  part  of  the  Bible. 
The  first  questions  of  the  Old  Testament  social. 
Moses  was  called  to  his  work  through  his  social  sympathies. 
The  fir.st  law  is  essentially  social. 
The  second  law  is  based  on  social  ideals. 
The  prophets  are  statesmen  and  reformers. 
The  Social  Message  of  the  New  Testament  seems  more  indirect 

and  secondary. 
Christ's  social  teachings  are  occasional. 
He  seems  detached  from  social  problems,  and  above  them. 

Hence  His  vision. 
His  approach  to  society  is  by  personal  inner  quickening. 
Many  critics  deny  Christ's  authority  in  social  life. 
Frederic  Harrison,  John  Stuart  Mill,  Mazzini. 
Christ,  as  awakening  the  .sense  of  social  relation  and  re- 

sponsibihty,  is  back  of  social  progress. 
Christ's  first  message  is  social. 

The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  the  Magna  Charta  of  society. 
His  doctrine  of  the  Kingdom  is  a  social  vision. 
His  second  coming  is  the  completion  of  the  Kingdom. 
Social  Conditions  demand  the  Social  Interpretation  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

References : 

Peabody.     "Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Problem." 

Brooks.     "The  Social  Unrest." 

Shailer  Mathews.      "The    Social   Teachings    of   the   New 

Testament." 
Shailer  Mathews.    "The  Church  and  the  Changing  Order." 
Rauschenbusch.     "Christianity  and  the  Social  Crisis." 
Brown.     "The  Social  Teachings  of  the  Modern  Pulpit." 
Nash.     "The  Genesis  of  the  Social  Conscience." 
238 


XII 

THE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE 

A  MESSAGE  that  gives  life  must  be  for  the  whole 
man.  Salvation  is  not  a  future  term,  but  a 
present  life.  It  is  not  only  for  life  in  a  glorified 
state,  but  for  men  on  the  earth,  as  members  of 
the  society  of  man. 

Men  sometimes  speak  of  "saving  the  soul"  as 
though  the  soul  were  something  that  could  be 
saved  alone,  as  though  the  man  were  a  dis- 
embodied spirit  without  passions  and  parts. 
In  our  desire  to  be  true  to  Protestant  and 
Evangelical  theology,  and  put  "the  first  things 
first,"  we  have  emphasized  the  individual  out 
of  his  relations  and  made  him  an  impossible 
creation,  a  fiction  of  our  speculation.  "A  man 
alone  is  no  man."  A  man  is  a  man  only  as  he 
is  the  member  of  a  family,  of  a  band  of  workers, 
of  society,  and  of  the  State.  We  have  exalted 
salvation  by  faith  until,  in  popular  thought,  it  is 
sometimes  held  that  faith  is  the  whole  of  sal- 
vation, "Saved  souls"  have  ignored  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount  as  though  it  were  lacking  in 

239 


240  The  Social  Message 

spirituality.  The  emphasis  for  the  moment 
should  be  changed  and  put  where  the  age  needs  it, 
and  the  Spirit  of  Christ  speaking  through  many- 
prophetic  voices  is  calling  to  us  to  make  more 
real  and  living  our  message. 

The  personal,  spiritual  message  of  the  pulpit 
must  not  be  lessened  one  whit ;  its  first  work  is 
to  start  and  sustain  the  higher  life  of  the  Spirit : 
but  the  Gospel  must  also  be  expressed  in  terms 
of  social  relation  if  it  is  to  inspire  and  direct  the 
moral  earnestness  of  men  to-day. 

There  are  two  extremes  among  equally  earnest 
men.  One  class  says,  —  they  might  be  called 
the  individualists  of  the  pulpit,  —  "  Get  the  man 
converted  and  all's  got."  If  a  man  is  a  new 
creature  through  Christ  Jesus,  he  will  work  out 
for  himself  a  new  society.  At  the  Pan-Presby- 
terian Council  at  Toronto,  in  a  discussion  on 
"The  Relation  of  the  Church  to  the  Labor  Prob- 
lem," a  notable  preacher  contended  that  the 
Church  and  the  pulpit  as  such  had  absolutely 
nothing  to  do  with  the  Labor  Problem.  Its 
sole  business  was  with  the  individual,  and  that 
to  secure  a  new  spiritual  life.  The  other  class 
of  teachers  says:  "There  are  conditions  that 
make  a  decent  life  impossible,  cesspools  in  which 
they  who  live  must  sin,  or  will  sin  and  perish. 
Therefore  change  conditions  and  life  will  be 
true."    These  are  two  half  truths.    Each  alone 


The  Social  Message  241 

is  a  practical  fallacy;  and  it  would  be  hard  to 
say  which  might  be  the  more  dangerous.  In 
Paternoster  Row,  London,  on  the  windows  of  a 
shop  of  evangelistic  literature,  this  question,  in 
great,  staring  letters,  was  read :  "  Does  the  hog 
make  the  sty  or  the  sty  the  hog?"  We  refuse 
to  be  fastened  upon  either  horn  of  that  dilemma. 
Our  conception  of  the  Gospel  must  be  big  enough 
to  receive  the  truth  in  both  statements ;  to  unite 
the  two  half  truths  into  a  whole  truth,  —  (in  the 
words  of  Dr.  Oswald  Dykes)  "the  personal  and 
religious  salvation  of  the  soul  from  sin,  and  the 
ethical  and  social  salvation  of  the  community 
from  wrong  and  suffering."  Christianity  stands 
for  the  highest  life  or  it  stands  for  nothing.  It 
is  more  than  the  rescue  of  the  soul ;  it  is  God's 
way  for  the  development  and  ennoblement  of 
life.  Something  therefore  is  lacking  in  a  Gos- 
pel that  does  not  lead  to  the  highest  life.  The 
pure  waters  of  Christianity  have  been  choked 
and  defiled  if  they  do  not  bless  everything  that 
they  touch;  if  they  do  not  give  men  better 
education,  better  conditions  and  quality  and 
reward  of  work,  more  wholesome  homes,  a  purer 
literature  and  time  and  taste  to  enjoy  it,  a 
happier  recreation,  and  a  more  patriotic  citizen- 
ship. 

The  whole  man  must  be  considered  if  the  soul 
is  to  be  reached.    Mr.  Jacob  Riis  has  said  that 


242  The  Social  Message 

children  that  live  in  a  room  without  windows 
will  probably  grow  up  without  windows  to  their 
souls.  A  Christian  service  that  does  not  con- 
cern itself  about  the  kind  of  houses  in  which 
people  live  lacks  the  first  element  of  humanity. 
Here  is  a  bit  of  realism  from  a  great  Christian 
city:  "There  is  not  a  heart  which  can  feel  that 
would  not  be  torn  and  crushed  could  we  know 
how  many  men  and  women  there  are  to-night 
who  have  settled  it,  that  things  can  never  be 
worse  for  them  in  any  conceivable  world  than 
they  are  in  this.  They  no  more  fear  death  than 
they  fear  sleep ;  they  have  no  more  thought  or 
concern  about  a  life  beyond  the  grave  than  they 
have  about  last  year's  weather.  The  great  con- 
ceptions of  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  race  through  Jesus  Christ,  the  power 
of  the  new  life  of  faith  on  the  Son  of  God,  are 
meaningless  formulae  to  untold  men  and  women, 
fighting  the  battle  from  which  there  is  no  dis- 
charge but  death;  the  grim  struggle  for  sheer 
existence,  with  the  chances  at  every  turn  of 
sickness,  accident,  and  no  work.  These  people 
are  not  infidel  to  the  august  and  transcendent 
truths  of  religion.  The  pathos  of  it  all  is  that 
they  are  past  infidelity,  they  simply  have  no  soul 
for  them;  it  has  dropped,  fallen  out.  From 
their  weariness  and  hopelessness  has  come  an 
utter  indifference,  not  only  about  the  churches, 


The  Social  Message  243 

but  the  very  God  they  are  supposed  to  preach 
and  teach."  ^ 

"  If  you  will  take  the  trouble  to  go  through  the 
section  of  the  city  where  the  operatives  of  some 
factory  are  housed,  and  see  with  your  own  eyes 
the  actual  conditions  of  their  lives;  if  you  will 
visit  the  homes  where  by  pressure  of  want  the 
mother  is  also  thrust  into  the  mill  with  several 
of  her  young  children  besides ;  if  you  will  stand 
by  as  they  take  their  pleasures  and  witness  their 
poverty,  not  only  in  things  material  but  in  all 
the  finer  values  of  life,  —  you  will  need  no  com- 
mentary to  tell  you  the  meaning  of  that  state- 
ment in  Exodus  as  to  the  unresponsiveness  of 
certain  hearts  because  of  the  conditions  of  their 
toil.  The  spiritual  tragedy  which  stands  ugly 
and  bare  in  whole  sections  of  the  worker's 
world  is  the  most  awful  aspect  of  it.  With 
these  thousands  of  weary,  beaten,  and  baffled 
men  and  women  in  mind,  it  seems  like  a  cruel 
joke  when  we  get  together  in  our  ministerial 
associations  and  read  fancy  little  papers  on 
'How  to  reach  the  Masses,'  deciding  perhaps 
that  it  can  be  done  with  a  little  more  music, 
or  a  bit  more  of  advertising,  or  with  more  hand- 
shaking at  the  door  of  the  Church.  Thousands 
of  them  hearken  not  to  the  prophet '  for  anguish 
of  spirit  and  for  cruel  bondage.'     The  applica- 

*  Ambrose  Sheppard,  "Social  Christianity,"  p.  90. 


244  The  Social  Message 

tion  of  Christian  principles  to  social  conditions 
is  therefore  demanded  because  their  pathway 
to  spiritual  life  is  blocked  for  lack  of  it."  ^ 

Miss  Jane  Addams  said  a  while  ago  to  a  com- 
pany of  ministers  that  there  was  little  serious 
antagonism  among  workingmen  to  the  Church, 
for  to  them  the  Church  was  nothing,  —  it  did 
not  come  into  their  view. 

The  millions  of  foreign  workers  come  from 
lands  where  the  Church  has  been  in  alliance  with 
the  State  and  so  is  the  symbol  of  aristocratic 
privilege  and  oppressive  power,  opposed  to  the 
hopes  of  the  democratic  movement.  Many  of 
them  are  socialists,  and  the  socialists  as  a  body, 
in  spite  of  many  notable  exceptions,  regard  re- 
ligion as  a  hindrance  to  the  social  state.  In 
our  voluntary  churches,  the  financial  support 
and  control  of  the  Church  may  be  in  the  hands 
of  men  who  are  leaders  in  corporations  or  em- 
ployers of  labor  and  lacking  in  humanity  and  in 
sympathy  with  the  labor  movement.  The  hand 
toilers  in  all  civilized  lands  (and  they  will  always 
be  in  the  large  majority)  stand  in  such  a  physical 
and  social  environment  that  it  is  hard  to  reach 
them  with  the  message  of  the  Gospel.  It  re- 
quires a  social  wisdom,  a  passion  to  reach  the 
man,  stripped  of  all  the  accidents  of  life,  which 
is  sometimes  lacking  in  the  pulpit,  to  quicken 
*  Brown,  "Social  Message  of  the  Pulpit,"  p.  15. 


The  Social  Message  245 

this  "apparent  death  of  the  spiritual  needs 
and  cravings,  this  life  under  the  low  sky,  this 
numbness  of  heart  and  conscience."  These 
conditions  that  absolutely  prevent  men  from 
receiving  the  truth  must  be  broken  through, 
changed  by  the  wisdom  and  devotion  of  Christian 
men,  if  the  indifferent  millions  in  our  great  cities 
that  threaten  to  submerge  our  Christianity  are 
to  be  reached.  "No  man  is  infidel  to  a  great 
unselfish  love." 

And  further  than  this  the  social  message  of 
Christianity  must  go.  It  must  not  only  break 
down  the  barriers  that  separate  men,  furnish  the 
conditions  for  receiving  the  truth,  but  furnish 
the  conditions  for  sustaining  the  new  life.  The 
Christian  life,  feeble  at  first,  must  have  whole- 
some conditions  for  its  growth.  You  might  as 
well  expect  to  grow  grapes  on  the  edge  of  a 
sulphur  pit  as  expect  strong  and  beautiful 
characters  in  an  atmosphere  of  physical  and 
moral  malaria.  At  a  meeting  of  young  men  on 
the  east  side,  New  York,  where  an  appeal  was 
made  for  the  higher  life  of  the  city,  one  of  them 
drew  this  pitiful  picture  of  the  conditions  in 
which  he  lived.  "Now  you  go  to  your  decent 
home  in  a  quiet  street,  where  no  harm  comes  to 
you  or  to  your  wife  and  children.  And  we  — 
we  go  with  our  high  resolves,  the  noble  ambi- 
tions you  have  stirred,  to  our  tenements  where 


246  The  Social  Message 

evil  lurks  in  the  darkness  at  every  step,  where 
innocence  is  murdered  in  babyhood,  where 
mothers  bemoan  the  birth  of  a  daughter  as  the 
last  misfortune,  where  virtue  is  sold  into  a  worse 
slavery  than  ever  our  fathers  knew,  and  our 
sisters  betrayed  by  paid  panders,  where  the  name 
of  home  is  a  bitter  mockery.  These  are  the 
standards  to  which  we  go  from  here." 

The  words  of  Ambrose  Sheppard,  of  Glasgow, 
who  himself  came  from  a  factory  boy  to  the 
pulpit,  are  none  too  strong :  "  Get  men  converted. 
Then  put  at  their  disposal  the  whole  apparatus 
of  moral,  economic,  and  spiritual  resource  that 
they  may  strengthen  into  a  saved  society.  How 
to  win  the  masses  of  the  people  to  Christ  is  no 
problem  if  it  is  to  Christ  we  would  win  them. 
It  is  a  question  of  faith,  determination,  prayer, 
passion,  consecration." 

Does  Christianity  mean  the  redemption  of  the 
whole  life  of  man  ?  Has  the  Gospel  a  message 
for  man  in  every  sphere  and  activity  of  his  life  ? 
A  message  for  man  as  a  member  of  a  social 
organism  ?  What  has  Christianity  to  say  about 
society  is  for  the  preacher  to-day  to  know  and  to 
declare. 

The  main  teachings  of  the  Bible  as  to  social 
problems  are  so  plain,  rise  so  above  all  questions 
of  criticism,  that  a  general  student  cannot  err 
as  to  their  meaning.     It  does  not  follow  that  the 


The  Social  Message  247 

social  teaching  of  Christianity  can  be  gained  from 
the  ordinary  Bible  helps.  The  great  theologians 
and  the  men  who  have  written  our  commentaries 
have  been  men  of  the  study,  men  of  an  intel- 
lectual and  religious  class,  who  have  not  lived 
in  conditions  of  killing  toil  and  social  peril, 
and  so  have  not  been  driven  to  find  a  social 
remedy  in  the  Gospel.  We  see  what  we  have 
the  eyes  to  see.  The  Bible  is  such  a  Book  of 
life  that  only  life  in  its  fullest,  most  varied  sense 
can  interpret  it.  Many  men  have  not  caught 
the  social  passion,  and  so  they  do  not  see  the 
social  message.  That  is  the  only  charitable  way 
to  account  for  the  individualistic  conception 
so  dominant  in  theology  and  the  Church.  The 
eyes  of  their  understanding  have  not  been  opened 
to  the  actual  life  of  men,  or  they  would  find  a 
message  that  should  break  the  bands  of  men  and 
set  them  free  to  understand  and  follow  the  path 
of  life.  We  have  a  few  noble  interpreters  and 
this  number  will  grow,  but  they  must  come  out 
of  the  toil  and  suffering  of  the  poor. 

Bishop  Westcott  has  given  us  the  social  inter- 
pretation of  Christianity,  but  he  identified 
himself  with  the  miners  and  factory  men  of 
North  England.  The  Bishop  of  London  has 
this  emphasis,  but  he  is  known  as  the  poor  man's 
Bishop.  Professor  George  Adam  Smith  has  the 
prophet's  spirit,  but  he  is  the  friend  of  working 


248  The  Social  Message 

men,  and  is  the  elder  of  a  church,  not  on  the 
Avenue,  but  in  the  slums  of  Glasgow. 

The  Social  Message  of  Christianity  is  not  a 
by-product,  but  an  essential  part,  vital  to  its 
true  understanding.  The  two  questions  that 
stand  on  the  opening  pages  of  the  Bible  are  the 
two  fundamental  questions  always,  —  Where 
art  thou?  and  Where  is  thy  brother?  Man's 
relation  to  God  and  man's  relation  to  his  fellows, 
from  these  two  have  developed  all  the  questions 
of  religion  and  morality.  The  one  is  individual 
and  the  other  is  social,  and  we  have  Christ's  own 
word  for  it  that  one  is  as  important  as  the  other. 
But  they  are  not  two  separate  words.  They 
never  can  be  safely  divided;  they  are  one  in- 
separable Gospel. 

Moses,  who  stands  back  of  law  and  Christian 
history,  who  is  the  personification  of  the  old  dis- 
pensation as  Christ  is  of  the  new,  was  called  to 
his  work  by  his  social  sympathies.  He  was  a 
statesman,  the  leader  of  a  great  national  and 
economic  revolution.  The  book  of  Exodus  has 
been  well  called  the  history  of  a  labor  movement. 
The  Law  is  as  social  as  it  is  personal.  Take  the 
first  law;  the  second  half  is  all  about  social 
relations  —  life,  its  relations  and  duties  in  the 
family,  in  industry  and  the  State.  And  in  the 
first  part  of  the  Law,  the  Sabbath  day  stands  as 
the  bulwark  of  the  poor,  the  first  social  force  in 


The  Social  Message  249 

developing  a  just  and  humane  civilization.  It 
puts  a  limit  on  the  hours  of  labor. 

And  when  we  turn  to  the  second  law,  what- 
ever be  our  critical  theories,  whether  we  regard 
it  as  Mosaic  legislation  or  the  work  of  the 
prophets,  we  must  recognize  its  social  ideals. 

The  land  belonged  to  the  people  and  could  not 
be  permanently  alienated.  The  poor  gleaned 
after  the  reapers,  not  as  a  matter  of  charity, 
but  as  a  right  coming  from  their  part  in  the 
national  domain.  Interest  was  prohibited,  be- 
cause it  would  tend  to  make  one  class  dependent 
upon  another  and  so  lessen  the  social  equality 
of  the  people.  Though  slavery  was  permitted, 
the  slave  was  a  member  of  the  family,  and  pro- 
vision in  the  year  of  jubilee  was  made  against 
perpetual  slavery.  There  was  no  feudal  class 
as  among  other  people.  A  social  democracy  was 
the  essential  basis  of  Jewish  life.  The  popular 
song  of  Wycklif's  time  shows  the  democratic 
interpretation  of  Jewish  history: 

"When  Adam  delved  and  Eve  span, 
Where  was  then  the  gentleman." 

The  striking  contrast  has  been  drawn  between 
Jewish  law  and  Roman  law;  Jewish  law  estab- 
lished the  rights  of  man,  with  special  regard  for 
the  poor,  Roman  law  always  had  more  respect 
for  property  and  privilege.    Such  ideals  grew 


250  The  Social  Message 

out  of  the  deep  religious  life  of  the  people. 
The  man  was  more  than  material  things. 

The  prophets  are  the  great  figures  of  the  Old 
Testament,  as  they  are  the  true  interpreters  and 
leaders  of  Jewish  life.  They  were  all  statesmen, 
patriots,  reformers.  Their  message  is  social 
and  national,  never  private  and  personal. 
Every  prophet  arose  through  some  social  or 
national  crisis  and  found  his  message  through 
his  social  interest.  Religion  and  social  ethics 
with  them  are  inseparable.  They  were  the 
champions  of  the  poor  and  the  oppressed ;  they 
laid  bare  the  social  sins  that  made  worship  a 
mockery  and  that  sapped  the  strength  of  the 
nation.  They  showed  that  the  privilege  of 
God's  people  rested  solely  on  a  righteous  life,  on 
principles  common  to  all  men;  and  through 
their  social  teaching  Jehovah  was  revealed  as 
the  righteous  one,  the  God  of  the  whole  earth. 
Jewish  religion  was  vital  as  it  was  bound  with  the 
national  hope;  it  grew  narrow  and  mechanical 
as  it  lost  the  social  aspects  in  the  priestly. 

When  we  come  to  the  New  Testament,  the 
social  message  seems  at  first  indirect  and  second- 
ary. Christ's  teachings  have  the  personal  accent ; 
they  are  to  bring  man  and  God  into  fellowship. 
He  seems  at  times  detached  from  social  problems, 
like  one  so  intent  upon  a  great  mission,  the  eye 
so  filled  with  a  great  vision,  as  to  be  enrapt  in  the 


The  Social  Message  251 

doing  of  it  and  not  to  see  many  things  along  the 
way. 

His  social  teachings  are  certainly  occasional 
more  than  systematic,  the  suggestion  of  prin- 
ciples and  motives  that  men  are  to  apply  to 
themselves.  For  this  reason  equally  earnest 
men  have  radically  differed  about  His  teachings. 

But  the  very  separation  of  Christ  gives  Him  His 
wisdom.  He  is  seemingly  detached  from  social 
problems,  not  because  He  is  indifferent  to  them, 
but  because  He  stands  above  their  dust  and  din. 
He  sees  man  as  God  does.  The  very  elevation  of 
Christ  gives  Him  His  breadth  of  vision  and  His 
social  wisdom.  His  occasional  word  comes  with 
the  power  of  unclouded  vision.  "The  difference 
between  Christ  and  the  prophets,"  says  Dr. 
Peabody,  "was  not  so  much  one  of  social  inten- 
tion as  of  social  horizon.  The  work  of  a  re- 
former is  for  his  own  age,  that  of  a  revealer  is 
for  all  ages." 

And  then  Christ's  approach  to  the  age  and  its 
problems  was  not  by  a  programme  of  reform,  not 
by  organizations  and  mass  movements,  but  by 
personal,  inner  quickening.  He  made  new  men 
and  sent  them  forth  to  make  a  new  world.  The 
seed  of  the  new  world  were  the  children  of  the 
Kingdom,  and  this  gave  Christ  His  social  power. 

But  to  stop  with  this  would  be  a  most  inade- 
quate  statement   of   Christ's    position.     Many 


252  The  Social  Message 

social  critics  seem  unable  to  understand  Christ's 
position.  As  to  personal  morality  we  admit, 
they  say,  that  Christ  was  perfect.  As  to  in- 
dividual character,  He  is  the  ideal.  But  man 
must  be  tested  by  his  relation  to  society.  We 
live  in  the  social  age,  an  age  of  growing  social 
consciousness.  Can  Christ  be  an  example  and 
guide  of  the  modern  world  of  work  and  play, 
of  society  and  government? 

Mr.  Frederic  Harrison,  the  English  Positivist, 
whose  earnestness  no  man  will  question,  admits 
the  power  of  Christianity  for  the  moral  life  of 
the  individual,  but  as  to  the  political  and  in- 
dustrial life  of  the  present  generation,  charges 
that  "Christianity  not  only  fails,  but  is  crimi- 
nally complacent  of  the  evils."  John  Stuart 
Mill,  in  his  essay  on  Liberty,  comparing  Christian 
ethics  with  pagan,  says,  "AVhile  in  the  morality 
of  the  best  pagan  nations,  duty  to  the  state  holds 
even  a  disproportionate  place,  infringing  even 
upon  the  just  liberty  of  the  individual,  in 
purely  Christian  ethics,  that  grand  department 
of  duty  is  scarcely  noticed  or  acknowledged." 
And  Joseph  Mazzini,  better  entitled  to  the  name 
prophet  than  most  of  the  moderns,  while  holding 
Jesus  supreme  in  "everything  that  concerns  the 
heart  and  the  affections,"  claims  that  as  to  the 
conception  of  the  collective  life  of  humanity, 
he  falls  "  below  the  height  of  the  idea  of  which  a 


The  Social  Message  253 

glimpse  has  been  revealed  in  our  day."  These 
are  typical  examples,  and  we  must  reverently  ask, 
Does  Christ  meet  the  test?  If  Christ  is  to  be 
tested  by  the  life  of  His  Church,  it  must  be  sadly 
confessed  that  the  charge  is  partly  true. 

But  it  fails  to  interpret  the  finer  influences  of 
Christianity,  and  utterly  fails  to  measure  the 
true  character  and  teaching  of  Christ:  His 
picture  of  the  new  man  and  the  new  world,  and 
the  radical  power  of  the  principles  of  the  new 
life. 

Christ,  as  the  soul  of  positive,  outreaching 
goodness,  condemning  sin  and  quickening  virtue, 
awakens  the  sense  of  personal  relation  and  per- 
sonal responsibility,  and  so  is  back  of  all  true 
social  conception  and  progress.  The  law  of  love 
which  He  lays  upon  every  conscience,  the  en- 
thusiasm for  humanity  with  which  He  would 
fill  every  heart,  makes  Christianity  a  mission- 
ary force  for  the  uplifting  of  the  lowest.  His 
first  message,  at  Nazareth,  which  Drummond 
finely  calls  the  programme  of  Christianity,  is  a 
social  message.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  put 
into  life  would  make  a  new  heaven  and  a  new 
earth.  The  Kingdom  of  God,  His  great  vision 
and  His  great  imperative,  is  a  society  of  men  who 
have  the  filial  spirit  towards  God  and  the  fra- 
ternal spirit  towards  men,  and  embraces  every 
true  interest  of  mankind.     His  coming  again  is 


254  The  Social  Message 

best  interpreted  as  the  triumph  and  completion 
of  the  Kingdom.  The  very  nations  shall  bring 
their  glory  and  honor  into  it. 

It  is  true  there  are  many  different  interpreta- 
tions of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  but  to  one  who  has 
the  social  consciousness  of  the  age,  the  social 
view  is  the  key  that  unlocks  its  meaning. 

John  the  Baptist's  preaching  had  the  so- 
cial tone,  —  righteousness  and  equality.  Social 
wrongs  were  the  real  obstacles  to  the  Kingdom, 
hence  he  prepared  the  way  by  preaching  social 
righteousness. 

Jesus  received  John's  baptism  and  began 
His  ministry  with  John's  word.  The  Kingdom  at 
hand.  He  had  the  prophet's  spirit  and  con- 
tinued the  prophet's  word. 

He  modified  and  corrected  the  common  na- 
tional hope  of  the  Kingdom,  showing  that  its 
coming  was  not  through  some  great  and  sudden 
catastrophe,  but  through  the  law  of  growth  and 
life.  He  taught  the  organic  growth  of  the  new 
society.  It  was  a  human  and  universal  hope. 
The  Kingdom  was  present,  ever  at  work,  not 
getting  men  into  some  future  heaven,  but  making 
of  earth  an  heavenly  life.  Jesus  never  views  man 
apart  from  society.  He  has  special  interest  in 
the  poor  and  lowly.  How  full  of  social  spirit 
are  his  parables !  The  simple  teaching  of  the 
Fatherhood  of  God  and  so  the  brotherhood  of 


The  Social  Message  255 

man  is  the  most  dynamic  social  force  in  the 
world.  Eternal  life  is  the  loving,  serving  life. 
An  anti-social  life  is  the  anti-Christian  life.  The 
highest  fellowship  with  God  is  possible  only  to 
the  life  with  the  greatest  humanity. 

Christ  is  the  first  and  the  last,  the  goal  of  all 
moral  and  spiritual  progress,  the  inspirer  of  the 
motive  strong  enough  to  break  the  barriers  of 
pride  and  selfishness  and  bring  the  promised  age 
of  brotherhood.  In  the  picture  of  Revelation, 
the  battle  between  the  Kingdom  and  the  world, 
the  root  of  David  is  alone  worthy  to  open  the 
book  and  loose  the  seals  of  human  history. 

The  social  message  of  the  Gospel  must  be 
presented  if  the  pulpit  works  with  some  of  the 
strongest  forces  of  life.  There  is  something  that 
environs  and  conditions  the  very  message  that 
we  give,  and  that  is  the  life  of  the  age.  The 
message  must  have  the  element  of  timeliness,  if 
we  are  to  work  with  the  forces  of  God. 

It  is  the  social  age.  The  Gospel  must  have  the 
social  emphasis  to  create  a  finer  sense  of  duty  and 
responsibility;  to  convince  the  world  of  right- 
eousness; to  make  possible  the  religious  life 
and  growth  of  men ;  and  to  give  earnest  men  the 
sufficient  goal  and  motive  for  social  progress. 
The  social  conditions  that  demand  the  social 
interpretation  of  Christianity  make  it  a  critical 
time  for  the  Church.     "If  the  Church  would  be 


256  The  Social  Message 

as  significant  as  its  past  and  its  Founder  make 
possible,  it  can  no  longer  preach  merely  an  in- 
dividualistic salvation.  It  must  educate  the 
social  sympathies  of  its  children ;  it  must  teach 
that  the  question  of  right  and  wrong  must  have 
its  answer  from  the  counting-room  as  well  as 
from  the  pulpit;  it  must  train  its  members  to 
trust  their  Christian  impulse  to  side  with  what- 
ever cause  is  true  and  beautiful  and  sane;  it 
must  teach  that,  if  there  can  be  no  regenerate 
society  without  regenerate  men,  neither  can  there 
be  regenerate  men  without  a  regenerate  society. 
And  therefore,  for  the  sake  of  all,  it  must  fulfil 
its  central  duty  of  throwing  into  an  irreligious 
but  generous  age  a  host  of  sons  and  daughters 
filled  with  the  fraternal  enthusiasm  of  its 
Founder.  This  is  the  evangelicalism  that  our 
age  needs;  the  Gospel  of  a  man's  saving  his 
life,  and  the  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom  of  God."  ^ 

1  Mathews,  "The  Church  and  the  Changing  Order," 
p.  180. 


PART   III 
THE  METHOD 


"  It  were  to  be  wished  the  flaws  were  fewer 
In  the  earthen  vessels  holding  treasure 
Which  lies  as  safe  as  in  a  golden  ewer. 
But  the  main  thing  is  —  Does  it  hold  good  measure  ?  — 
Heaven  soon  sets  right  all  other  matter." 

—  Browning. 


XIII 
EVANGELISTIC   PREACHING 


OUTLINE 

The  General  Mission  of  the  Preacher. 

The  urgent  message  of  New  Testament  preachers. 

Their  varied  appeals. 
The  Evangelistic  and  the  Educational  views  of  Salvation  and 
of  Preaching. 

Their  union  in  a  true  ministry. 
Relation  of  Evangelistic  Preaching  to  the  Church. 

Its  power  dependent  on  the  spiritual  life  of  the  Church. 

The  work  for  pastors  and  officers. 

The  message  to  the  Church. 
The  Truths  of  the  Evangelistic  Sermon. 

A  more  present  and  penetrative  interpretation  of  sin. 

The  personal  work  for  men. 
The  Special  Call  for  Pastoral  Evangelism. 
The  Variety  of  Motives  in  Evangelistic  Preaching. 
The  Marked  Features  of  the  Pastor-Preacher  in  his  Evangelistic 
Work. 

References  : 

Mason.     "The  Ministry  of  Conversion." 
Goodell.      "Pastoral  Evangelism." 
Dawson.     "The  Evangelistic  Note." 
Newell.      "Revivals,  How  and  When." 
Finney,  Life  of. 

Brooks.     "  Lectures  on  Preaching."     Lect.  8. 
Johnson.     "The  Ideal  Ministry."     Lect.  26. 
Dale.     "  Lectures  on  Preaching."     Lect.  7. 
Beecher.     "  Yale  Lectures. "    Vol.  II,  Lect.  8-11. 


260 


XIII 

EVANGELISTIC  PREACHING 

Emphasis  has  been  placed  upon  the  vital 
theory  of  preaching.  The  man  comes  first. 
The  Gospel  of  the  Incarnation  can  be  proclaimed 
only  by  a  spiritual  manhood.  Christ  took  in- 
finite pains  with  the  training  of  a  few,  and  sent 
them  forth  to  be  His  witnesses  and  messengers. 
And  this  is  the  unchanging  law  of  the  Evangel, 
Faith  spreads  by  the  words  and  touch  of  a  vi- 
talized person.  The  preacher  is  a  witness  and  a 
messenger.  He  has  a  definite  message  to  give, 
and  this  with  a  definite  purpose  to  accomplish. 
The  preacher  is  a  man  with  a  mission.  The 
general  idea  of  the  mission  of  the  preacher  is  plain 
and  undisputed.  It  is  to  interest  men  to  enter 
upon  and  persist  in  the  Christian  life.  It  is  so  to 
speak  the  truth  that  men  shall  be  led  into,  and 
grow  in,  the  life  of  the  children  of  God,  knowing 
more  of  God  in  Christ  and  His  will,  growing  in 
the  graces  of  character  that  belong  to  His  chil- 
dren, performing  the  duties,  entering  upon  the 
service  that  grows  out  of  the  relation  of  God  and 

261 


262  Evangelistic  Preaching 

man,  building  up  a  righteous  character  and  a 
righteous  society  of  men. 

The  preachers  of  the  New  Testament  are  ever 
urging  men  to  be  hearers  and  doers  of  the  Word, 
to  repent  of  sin  and  beheve  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  to  take  Him  for  teacher  and  Saviour 
and  Lord.  They  are  always  trying  to  convince 
men  of  the  importance  of  their  message,  and  to 
persuade  them  to  believe  it,  and  heed  it,  and 
obey  it  at  whatever  cost.  And  to  this  end  they 
appeal  to  a  variety  of  motives,  the  moral  need 
of  man,  the  seeking  and  suffering  love  of  God, 
the  attractive  power  of  the  Cross,  the  cleansing 
and  impelling  force  of  the  Christ-love,  the  moral 
beauty  of  Christ,  the  love  of  growth  and  per- 
fection, the  supremacy  of  duty,  the  privilege 
of  fellowship  and  service,  the  danger  of  neglect, 
the  glory  that  is  to  be  revealed.  They  appeal 
to  reason  and  conscience  that  they  may  in- 
fluence the  will.  They  picture  to  the  imagina- 
tion that  the  emotions  may  respond  to  the  vivid 
perception,  and  desire  give  ease  and  strength  to 
the  choice  of  the  will. 

So  in  view  of  the  large  practical  purpose  of 
preaching,  there  are  two  kinds  of  preaching; 
the  two  shading  into  one  another,  often  both 
found  in  the  same  sermon,  and  yet  sometimes 
distinct,  and  each  to  be  discussed  by  itself,  — 
evangelistic  and  pastoral  preaching. 


Evangelistic  Preaching  263 

We  say  that  the  mission  of  preaching  is  the 
salvation  of  men.  But  practically  there  are  two 
views  of  salvation :  the  one  regards  it  as  a  trans- 
action, thinks  of  salvation  as  a  definite  act,  and 
speaks  of  a  saved  man ;  the  other  regards  it  as 
a  process  of  spiritual  training,  beginning  some- 
times in  a  definite  conscious  act  of  repentance 
and  faith,  but  continuing  through  many  acts,  a 
life-process  of  learning,  of  discipline,  of  growth, 
leading  to  the  perfect  life.  Christianity  is 
God's  way  of  making  a  man. 

And  so  there  are  practically  two  very  dif- 
ferent views  of  preaching.  The  one  is  evan- 
gelistic. It  emphasizes  and  reiterates  a  few 
primary  truths  that  tend  to  conviction  and 
conversion;  it  makes  much  of  special  service 
and  revival  methods;  it  aims  at  bringing  men 
to  confession  of  faith,  and  union  with  the 
Church;  it  is  tempted  to  look  for  visible  and 
tabulated  results,  is  impatient  at  the  slow  and 
patient  processes  of  instruction,  the  leavening 
work  of  the  Gospel,  and  moves  from  place  to 
place  seeking  for  new  conquests. 

The  other  view  lays  stress  upon  the  educa- 
tional work  of  the  pulpit,  dwells  upon  Christian 
nurture,  carefully  instructs  in  the  Scriptures, 
gains  the  respect  and  friendship  of  an  increasing 
number  of  people,  establishes  permanent  rela- 
tions with  the  community,  is  willing  to  sow  the 


264  Evangelistic  Preaching 

seed  with  faith  in  the  certainty  of  the  harvest, 
though  another  should  reap  it,  appHes  the  truth 
in  every  sphere  of  life,  and  tries  to  establish  the 
Kingdom  of  God  upon  earth. 

If  one  were  compelled  to  choose  between  the 
two,  there  is  no  question  which  is  the  nobler 
and  truer  view  of  preaching,  which  has  the 
more  Scriptural  aim.  But  we  are  not  com- 
pelled to  choose.  Both  should  go  together. 
Either  alone  is  partial  and  imperfect,  and  may 
be  exaggerated  into  an  injurious  extreme. 
Some  men,  no  doubt,  are  naturally  evangelists; 
their  gifts  and  experiences  fit  them  to  arouse 
men  and  persuade  to  definite  committal  to 
the  Christian  life.  And  there  may  always  be 
the  need  of  a  special  class  of  evangelists  in  the 
Church.  But  the  discussion  is  of  the  ordinary 
work  of  the  ministry,  and  for  the  preacher  who 
is  also  the  pastor.  And  such  a  preacher  should 
have  the  largest  aim  of  the  sermon  in  view,  the 
beginning  and  continuance  and  perfection  of 
the  Christian  life,  salvation  in  its  Gospel  sweep 
and  reach,  a  saved  life  and  a  perfected  society. 

How  shall  the  preacher  do  the  work  of  an 
evangelist  ?  The  preacher  is  a  part  of  organized 
Christianity.  He  usually  speaks  from  the  pul- 
pit of  a  church,  and  his  word  is  mightily  helped 
or  hindered  by  the  spiritual  life  of  the  church 
to  which  he  ministers.    The  Church  is  crippled 


Evangelistic  Preaching  265 

in  its  influence  by  worldliness  and  sin.  A 
formal  and  worldly  Christianity  has  no  power 
of  transmission.  In  such  Hves  the  Spirit  of 
God  is  neither  desired  nor  works. 

If  the  preacher  is  placed  in  a  church  lacking 
in  spiritual  vitality,  satisfied  with  its  condition 
and  position  in  the  community,  a  social  religious 
club,  with  no  yearning  or  outreaching  for  the 
lives  of  others,  what  can  he  do  for  the  increase 
of  spiritual  life?  The  atmosphere  will  chill  the 
evangelistic  word.  The  church  must  have  a 
renewal  of  the  right  spirit,  before  transgressors 
can  be  taught  God's  ways,  and  sinners  shall  be 
converted.  Men  will  have  no  faith  in  a  Gospel 
that  does  not  make  a  better  life.  What  can  the 
preacher  do?  He  can  begin  with  himself, 
searching  the  heart  in  the  light  of  the  truth,  and 
turning  out  evil ;  he  can  open  every  part  of  his 
life  to  the  purifying  and  energizing  influences  of 
the  Spirit.  He  can  pray  for  men  until  he  shall 
love  them  and  yearn  for  their  salvation.  He 
can  open  his  heart  to  the  officers  of  the  church. 
Dr.  Newell,  the  author  of  "Revivals,  How  and 
When  ?  "  once  said  to  his  session :  "  My  heart  is 
breaking;  I  cannot  live  in  this  stupor.  What 
can  we  do?"  The  officers  of  the  church  are 
generally  the  best  Christian  men  in  the  com- 
munity. Seldom  will  one  of  their  number  be 
found  who  will  not  answer  the  pastor's  heart  in 


266  Evangelistic  Preaching 

the  desire  for  deepened  spiritual  life  in  the 
church.  Pastor  and  officers  can  have  earnest 
consultation  together,  and  concert  of  prayer 
for  the  object  desired.  Wherever  a  Christian 
is  found  concerned  for  the  church  or  community, 
bring  that  life  into  cooperation  of  prayer  and 
labor.  Talk  with  the  Bible  teachers,  make  them 
feel  their  place  of  influence,  infuse  into  them 
your  own  hope  and  purpose.  The  pastor  as  the 
teacher  of  his  teachers  has  an  unsurpassed 
opportunity  of  unifying  and  deepening  the 
religious  life  of  his  best  co-workers.  Do  not 
multiply  meetings  —  and  so  call  undue  atten- 
tion to  the  machinery  of  evangelistic  effort. 
Let  the  effort  be  directed  solely  to  enlarged  life ; 
and  when  the  renewed  life  of  the  church  and 
the  increasing  attention  of  the  people  demand 
added  services  of  the  church,  be  ready  to  give 
them,  and  not  before.  Do  not  talk  about  re- 
vival or  even  pray  much  for  it  by  name.  Be 
faithful  to  the  church.  Do  not  yield  to  the 
temptation  to  preach  to  the  people,  before  the 
church  is  ready  to  cooperate.  Preach  to 
Christians,  searching,  fearless,  living  sermons, 
and  follow  the  same  lines  of  truth  in  the  mid- 
week service  and  in  pastoral  visitation.  Use 
all  the  cogency  of  oft-repeated  truth.  The  best 
evangelists  and  missioners  insist  upon  this  work 
of  preparation,   and  for  several  weeks  before 


Evangelistic  Preaching  267 

special  services  in  any  city,  spiritual  preparation 
is  the  theme ;  the  inner  life  of  the  Christian,  the 
need  of  repentance,  a  higher  standard  of  living, 
personal  duty  to  men,  these  are  the  themes, 
reiterated  from  the  pulpit,  and  in  lecture  room 
and  in  ministers'  meetings.  It  is  preparing  the 
way  of  the  Lord. 

The  parochial  missions  in  the  Episcopal 
Church  emphasize,  in  the  same  way,  the  neces- 
sity of  spiritual  preparation.  "The  specific 
character  of  a  parochial  mission  is  the  renewal 
and  deepening  of  the  spiritual  life  in  it."  Such 
spiritual  preparation  on  the  part  of  pastor  and 
officers  will  lead  certainly  to  a  renewed  life  in 
the  .church.  Men  will  feel  the  new  vitality. 
The  Holy  Spirit  will  press  the  truth  upon  them, 
through  the  witness  of  new  life.  The  earnest, 
attentive,  inquiring  spirit  will  be  abroad.  The 
atmosphere  of  the  church  will  be  right  so  as  to 
give  life  to  the  message  of  the  pulpit,  and  be  a 
fit  home  for  the  new  life  the  message  aims  to  give. 

Now  the  truth  preached  must  aim  directly  at 
repentance  and  faith.  Not  that  each  sermon 
should  be  evangelistic  in  form.  A  sermon  may 
do  more  for  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  by  increas- 
ing the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  or  establishing 
in  practical  righteousness,  than  the  most  fervent 
appeal  to  sinners.  But  all  truth  is  for  life,  and 
the  sermon  answers  its  end  only  by  promoting 


268  Evangelistic  Preaching 

larger  spiritual  life.  It  must  have  a  direct  and 
intense  purpose  to  reach  the  lives  of  men,  and 
such  purpose  will  often  preach  the  truth  that 
calls  for  decision,  —  the  acts  of  repentance,  faith, 
and  obedience. 

The  central  doctrines  of  God,  the  soul,  sin, 
and  judgment,  the  Atonement,  repentance,  faith, 
obedience,  must  be  dwelt  upon,  and  so  dwelt 
upon  that  they  shall  possess  the  mind.  It  will 
be  interesting  to  notice  the  essential  agreement 
of  Protestant  and  Romanist,  as  to  the  truth  to 
be  used  in  evangelizing  methods.  Says  Dr. 
McGlynn,  of  St.  Stephen's  Church,  New  York : 
"As  regards  the  best  methods  of  reaching  the 
hearts  of  the  people  and  effecting  the  greatest 
spiritual  good,  I  have  no  doubt  that,  whether 
in  missions,  or  in  the  ordinary  parochial  preach- 
ing, the  best  preaching  is  that  which  gives  plain, 
simple,  homely  instruction  of  Gospel  truths  on 
the  simple,  ordinary  duties  of  the  various  states 
of  life.  It  is  the  urging  of  the  motives  for  con- 
trition for  sin,  to  be  found  in  the  suffering  which 
Christ  underwent  for  sin,  in  the  judgments  which 
He  threatens,  in  the  unreasonableness  and  tur- 
pitude of  sin  as  revealed  by  divine  truth,  and 
especially  in  urging  the  highest  of  all  motives, 
of  filial  love  of  God,  which  drives  out  fear, 
and  makes  the  service  of  God  a  pleasure  and  a 
delight  to  His  children." 


Evangelistic  Preaching  269 

Does  not  sin  need  a  more  present  and  practical 
interpretation  ?  The  organic  nature  of  life,  the 
increased  interdependence  and  complexity  of 
society,  have  made  old  conceptions  of  sin  inade- 
quate. The  blood  of  others  rests  upon  too  many 
things  that  we  use,  the  prosperity  of  the  Chris- 
tian world  is  built  too  much  upon  the  pinched 
and  crippled  Hves  of  the  little  ones  with  whom 
Christ  identifies  Himself.  The  convincing  word 
is  one  that  shall  awaken  the  individual  in  rela- 
tion to  the  corporate  life,  making  the  sin  of 
society  press  on  the  conscience  of  each.  The 
awakened  social  sense  will  give  a  deeper  con- 
sciousness of  sin  and  need  and  lead  to  the 
Christ,  whose  sacrifice  is  the  law  of  the  new  life. 
We  must  expect  conversions  from  such  preach- 
ing. Is  the  attitude  of  the  ministry  one  of 
expectancy?  Would  not  a  simple  heart  cry 
for  salvation  startle  some  men  as  they  come 
down  from  the  pulpit  ? 

We  must  watch  the  slightest  tokens  of  con- 
viction, and  have  others  interested  in  such 
cases,  and  be  prompt  and  wise  to  use  the  oppor- 
tunity. Let  it  be  known  by  an  occasional  hearty 
word  from  the  pulpit  that  you  will  be  in  the 
study  after  service,  or  at  home  a  certain  hour, 
to  talk  with  any  one  concerning  the  religious 
life.  Let  the  word  be  given  in  such  a  way  that 
the  timid  and  faltering  may  be  attracted,  that 


270  Evangelistic  Preaching 

its  acceptance  will  not  mean  necessarily  interest 
in  the  question  of  personal  salvation. 

We  must  strive  by  personal  effort,  attractive 
and  forceful  preaching,  and  the  most  efficient 
church  methods,  to  reach  and  persuade  the 
careless  and  the  indifferent.  The  right  kind  of 
pastoral  work  comes  in  here  as  a  powerful  factor. 
The  personal  conversation  should  be  had  at 
some  time  with  every  man  of  the  parish.  And 
the  right  relation  to  men,  the  reputation  for 
sincerity  and  humanity  and  sacrifice,  will  make 
such  conversation  a  welcome  word.  The  even- 
ing service  should  be  largely  for  the  people.  If 
it  is  not  possible  to  draw  in  some  of  those  not 
members  of  a  regular  congregation,  if  the  evening 
audience  were  only  a  small  part  of  the  regular 
attendance,  it  would  be  a  serious  question 
whether  the  evening  service  should  not  be  given 
up  for  some  other  place  or  work. 

It  may  be  that  we  have  too  much  preaching 
to  the  same  people.  The  Church  would  gain 
if  more  preachers  were  free  to  devote  the  even- 
ing to  an  aggressive  evangelism.  However,  in 
most  churches  in  village  and  city,  the  problems 
of  the  evening  service  can  be  solved  by  energy, 
wisdom,  and  spiritual  devotion.  Enlist  the 
young  people  to  bring  in  the  young  people ;  make 
the  most  of  Christian  song.  Give  the  people  a 
larger  part  in  the  service.     Let  the  prayers  be 


Evangelistic  Preaching  271 

simple,  brief,  and  fervent.  The  sermon  may  not 
be  always  evangelistic,  but  often  so.  And 
brevity  here  will  be  a  virtue.  Fifteen  minutes 
of  simple,  direct,  bright,  intense  speech,  on  some 
great  Scripture  truth,  some  great  problem  of 
life  and  duty,  will  be  enough.  Sometimes,  espe- 
cially during  the  winter  months,  the  evening 
service  can  be  followed  by  an  after  meeting  not 
longer  than  fifteen  minutes,  when  close  contact 
can  be  had  with  interested  persons,  and  personal 
conversation  can  be  held  with  all  who  wish. 
Such  a  service  will  impress  the  Church  constantly 
with  its  direct  spiritual  mission,  and  make  the 
community  feel  that  its  spiritual  welfare  is  the 
thought  and  prayer  and  effort  of  the  Church. 

The  office  of  the  evangelist  is  to  be  recognized 
in  the  Church ;  and  his  special  work  in  destitute 
and  waste  places,  in  the  union  efforts  in  our 
cities,  with  definite  purpose  to  reach  the  neg- 
lected and  indifferent  classes,  is  to  be  honored. 
Some  men  are  gifted  in  the  truth  and  method 
of  persuasion.  No  single  teacher  has  the  large- 
ness of  nature  and  truth  to  reach  all  men.  And 
the  evangelist  may  bring  to  light  the  truth  long 
known.  The  age  calls  for  men,  "  fitted  as  instru- 
ments to  use  what  the  people  believe  and  know, 
in  order  to  bring  them  to  a  decision  for  God." 

But  a  passing  evangelism  is  not  the  chief  in- 
strument for  the  growth  of  the  Kingdom.     The 


272  Evangelistic  Preaching 

evangelism  of  Christian  lands  depends  upon  the 
instruction  of  a  stable  pulpit.  And  the  pastor, 
in  most  cases,  is  best  fitted  to  do  this  work.  He 
has  permanent  relations  to  the  community; 
men  know  his  life  and  prize  his  friendship ;  and 
this  personal  touch  can  remove  prejudice  and 
indifference,  and  give  the  sympathetic  knowledge 
to  speak  the  fitting  word.  The  mass-movements 
in  religion  of  this  social  age  fail  to  reach  the 
masses.  Men  are  to  be  won  within  the  com- 
munity, not  from  without,  by  the  constraints 
and  inducements  of  friendship,  by  the  personal 
touch  that  symbols  the  Messianic  entrance  into 
the  hopes  and  fears  of  men,  their  toils  and  strug- 
gles and  sorrows,  their  sin  and  aspiration. 
Every  preacher  should  have  the  ambition  to  be 
a  soul-winner,  to  do  the  work  of  an  evangelist. 
"The  pastor  must  not  forget  those  unsatis- 
factory and  unsatisfied  ones  who,  at  any  given 
moment,  are  probably  the  majority  of  his 
parishioners.  The  parish  priest  is  always 
tempted  to  forget  them,  especially  in  great 
town-parishes,  where  he  has  extensive  organi- 
zations to  manage,  and  things  move  prosper- 
ously along,  and  the  numbers  of  communicants 
are  so  large  as  to  weaken  the  sense  of  their  being 
small  in  proportion  to  what  they  should  be.  We 
need  an  increasing  number  of  ministers  who 
keep  steadily  before  them  the  duty  that  they  owe 


Evangelistic  Preaching  273 

to  the  less  promising  portion  of  their  flock. 
How  seriously  the  Ordinal  insists  upon  this  part 
of  our  duty :  '  Never  cease  your  labor,  your  care 
and  diligence,  till  you  have  done  all  that  lieth 
in  you  to  bring  all  that  are  committed  to  your 
charge  unto  that  agreement  in  the  faith  and 
knowledge  of  God,  that  there  be  no  place  left 
among  you  either  for  error  in  religion,  or  for 
viciousness  in  life.' "  ^ 

A  word  should  be  said  as  to  the  variety  of 
motives  to  be  appealed  to  in  evangelistic  preach- 
ing. Says  Dr.  W.  M.  Taylor,  in  his  "Ministry  of 
the  Word,"  "To  tell  men  over  and  over  again 
that  they  ought  to  repent  and  believe  the  Gos- 
pel, to  entreat  them,  no  matter  with  what 
vehemence,  to  accept  Christ,  will  rarely  produce 
any  real  results.  I  doubt  whether  we  suffi- 
ciently consider  the  variety  of  motives  which 
bring  men  to  Christ,  or  the  kind  of  preaching 
which  is  likely  to  call  these  motives  into  vigor- 
ous and  effective  action." 

Some  men  begin  the  Christian  life  under  a 
sense  of  duty.  There  is  no  keen  sense  of  sin, 
no  fear  of  penalty,  but  Christ  appeals  to  con- 
science, and  He  is  obeyed.  We  should  so  pre- 
sent the  moral  greatness  of  Christ  that  obedience 
to  Him  will  be  seen  as  the  supreme  duty. 

Other  men  are  dissatisfied  with  themselves, 
Mason,  "The  Ministry  of  Conversion,"  p.  21. 


274  Evangelistic  Preaching 

especially  youth,  and  they  know  not  why. 
Common  things  do  not  appeal  to  them.  There 
is  a  time  in  the  life  of  boys  and  girls  when  they 
reach  beyond  self  after  some  other  food.  It  is 
the  unconscious  call  of  God,  the  stirring  of  the 
higher  life.  They  are  capable  of  love  and  devo- 
tion, if  Christ  can  be  presented  in  the  fulness 
and  glory  of  His  life.  It  is  the  appeal  to  moral 
imagination.  Such  studies  in  the  psychology  of 
child-life  and  youth  as  President  G.  Stanley 
Hall,  Professor  Coe,  and  Dr.  Starbuck,  should 
make  the  preacher's  work  more  rational  and 
effective.  Happy  the  man  who  uses  the  tide  of 
life  to  bear  the  soul  on  towards  God. 

There  are  natures  that  early  have  strong  in- 
stincts for  the  spiritual.  From  love  of  nature, 
of  poetry,  of  music,  they  are  idealists ;  they  feel 
the  mystery  of  life  and  the  presence  of  God. 
And  they  are  easily  won  by  Christ  as  the  reve- 
lation of  God  and  the  giver  of  life.  To  such, 
the  mystical  elements  of  the  Gospel  make  the 
strongest  appeal. 

Another  class  have  a  sense  of  shame  over  moral 
failure.  They  know  the  power  of  sin.  They 
have  tried  again  and  again  and  have  failed,  and 
they  are  in  danger  of  moral  despair.  Christ  as 
the  giver  of  victory,  as  the  power  over  evil,  is 
the  Gospel  that  they  need.  Some  are  drawn  to 
Christ  by  His  moral  perfection,  and  others  by 


Evangelistic  Preaching  275 

His  love.  Children,  especially,  are  easily  won 
by  the  story  of  the  Cross.  But  the  majority  of 
men  are  indifferent,  or  absorbed,  not  conscious 
of  moral  guilt  or  sensitive  to  spiritual  truth. 
How  to  awaken  the  sense  of  need  and  desire  is 
the  real  problem  of  the  preacher.  Sometimes 
by  hunting  a  particular  sin  out,  as  Edwards  did; 
sometimes  by  such  an  ideal  of  goodness  that  the 
soul  stands  condemned  before  it;  and  some- 
times the  sacrifice  of  Christ  will  give  the  heart  of 
flesh. 

How  far  shall  we  appeal  to  fear  ?  Men  are  not 
easily  frightened,  and  the  appeal  has  lost  some- 
thing of  its  force.  It  is  not  the  highest  motive. 
Yet  it  is  an  unmistakable  appeal  of  Christ,  and 
dull  and  hardened  natures  may  never  awake 
save  by  the  terrible  picture  of  the  penalty  of  sin, 
''the  worm  that  dieth  not,  and  the  fire  that  is 
not  quenched."     Sin  is  something  to  be  afraid  of. 

The  man  who  can  picture  the  growth  of  the 
soul  in  evil  with  a  vivid  realism,  put  the  inner 
life  and  tendency  on  the  canvas  before  the  eyes, 
will  make  his  word  "  living  and  active,  .  .  .  and 
quick  to  discern  the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the 
heart." 

Such  realism  will  be  found  in  Bushnell's  ser- 
mons, "The  Capacity  of  Religion  Extirpated 
by  Disuse"  and  "The  Power  of  an  Endless  Life." 
Phillips  Brooks  was  a  master  interpreter  of  life. 


276  Evangelistic  Preaching 

The  moral  decline  of  young  manhood  was  never 
more  truthfully  portrayed  than  in  his  sermon, 
"  Unspotted  from  the  World."  "  Your  grown-up 
boy  is  wise  in  bad  things  which  he  used  to  know 
nothing  about.  He  has  a  hard  conscience  now, 
instead  of  the  soft  and  tender  one  he  used  to 
carry.  He  is  scornful  about  sacred  things,  in- 
stead of  devout  as  he  was  once.  He  is  no  longer 
gentle,  but  cruel;  no  longer  earnest,  but  flip- 
pant; no  longer  enthusiastic,  but  cynical.  He 
tolerates  evils  that  he  used  to  hate.  He  makes 
excuses  for  passions  that  he  once  thought  were 
horrible.  He  qualifies  and  limits  the  absolute 
standards  of  truthfulness  and  purity.  His  life 
no  longer  sounds  with  a  perfectly  clear  ring  or 
shines  with  a  perfectly  white  lustre."^ 

If  evangelistic  preaching  is  to  be  real,  free 
from  partial  views  of  life  and  mediaeval  views 
of  truth,  we  must  have  a  growing  conception  of 
Christ's  view  of  the  worth  of  man.  The  sense  of 
the  value  of  the  soul  will  make  the  Gospel  a 
divine  certainty,  save  the  preacher  from  despis- 
ing or  ignoring  any  man  for  whom  Christ  died, 
give  proper  significance  to  single  truths,  and 
single  acts  and  experiences,  and  maintain  their 
proper  relation  to  the  whole  nature  of  man  and 
the  immeasurable  reach  of  salvation. 

We  do  not  see  Christ  clearly  if  men  do  not 
>  Vol.  I,  175. 


Evangelistic  Preaching  277 

become  more  precious  to  us  and  we  have  a  grow- 
ing passion  for  souls.  "Go  and  try  to  save  a 
soul  and  you  will  see  how  well  it  is  worth  sav- 
ing, how  capable  it  is  of  the  most  complete  sal- 
vation. Not  by  pondering  upon  it,  nor  by 
talking  of  it,  but  by  serving  it  you  learn  its 
preciousness.  And  so  the  Christian,  living  and 
dying  for  his  brethren's  souls,  learns  the  value 
of  those  souls  for  which  Christ  lived  and  died."  ^ 

In  conclusion,  what  features  should  mark  the 
work  of  the  pastor-preacher  who  would  also  do 
the  work  of  an  evangelist  ? 

He  should  preach  sermons  repeatedly  that  aim 
at  repentance  and  faith,  at  immediate  decision 
for  the  Christian  life.  The  note  of  urgency  will 
often  be  heard  in  the  full  giving  of  the  Evangel. 

From  pastoral  experience,  a  list  should  be 
made  of  those  who  seem  to  have  religious  con- 
viction and  feeling,  who  should  take  the  step  of 
faith.  A  study  should  be  made  of  their  natures 
and  environment,  and  preaching  especially 
adapted  to  their  condition. 

Certain  periods  of  the  Church,  as  communion 
seasons,  may  direct  the  form  of  pulpit  teaching, 
and  sermons  given  designed  to  bring  men  into 
faith  and  into  the  fellowship  of  the  Church. 
Such  sermons  should  be  kept  free  from  con- 
ventional appeals,  marked  by  entire  naturalness 

*  Brooks,  "Lectures  on  Preaching,"  p.  280. 


278  Evangelistic  Preaching 

and  reasonableness,  the  peculiar  expression  from 
the  study  of  individual  natures  and  motives. 

Evangelistic  teaching  should  be  followed  by 
the  personal  work  of  the  pastor.  "Hand-picked 
fruit  is  the  best."  Private  conversation,  the 
frank  word  of  love  and  desire,  is  the  way  to 
make  truth  effective,  and  action  controlling  and 
permanent. 

Wise  evangelism  will  always  be  built  upon 
thorough  instruction.  The  call  to  action  will 
come  from  convinced  reason  and  a  clear  sense 
of  duty.  The  aim  will  not  be  to  swell  the  roll 
of  the  Church,  but  increase  the  Kingdom  of 
God. 


XIV 
EXPOSITORY   PREACHING 


OUTLINE 

A  Teaching  Ministry. 

Its  power. 

Its  objects. 

The  types  of  sermons. 
Difficulties  of  the  Expository  Sermon. 

Popular  desire  for  persuasion. 

The  changed  views  of  the  Bible  and  of  life. 

Can  it  be  made  interesting? 
Definition  of  the  Expository  Sermon. 

Two  features:    (1)  A  connected  passage.     (2)  Interpreta- 
tion for  present  fife. 
The  Advantages  of  the  Expository  Sermon. 

Preacher  and  hearer  brought  into  contact  with  the  Spirit. 

Biblical  knowledge  increased. 

Intelligent,  balanced  views  of  truth. 

The  preacher  enabled  wisely  to  discuss  all  needful  topics. 

Enriches  the  preacher. 
Examples  of  the  Expository  Method. 
Suggestions  as  to  Expository  Method. 

Selection  of  passage. 

Rhetorical  order. 

Singleness  of  thought  and  purpose. 

Use  of  illustration,  argument,  appeal. 

Variety  of  treatment. 
The  Formation  of  the  Habit. 

References: 

Pattison.     "The  Making  of  the  Sermon."     Lect. 

5,  6. 
Dale.      "Lectures  on  Preaching."     Lect.  8. 
Taylor.     "The  Ministry  of  the  Word."     Lect.  7. 
Bruce.     "The  Training  of  the  Twelve." 
Maclaren.     "Sermons." 
Robertson.     "Lectures  on  1st  Corinthians." 


280 


XIV 
EXPOSITORY  PREACHING 

The  preacher  is  first  and  chiefest  the  teacher. 
It  is  his  duty  to  make  known  the  truths  of 
Christ  in  such  a  way  as  to  form  right  habits  of 
thought,  conduct,  worship,  and  work,  to  train  a 
righteous  and  godly  hfe.  Misconceptions  and 
prejudices  must  be  removed,  rehgious  indif- 
ference and  moral  stupor  broken,  high  ideals  of 
life  held  up  and  divine  motives  brought  to 
bear,  reason  enlightened,  conscience  awakened, 
the  will  directed  to  right  conduct;  and  all  this 
implies  the  careful  teacher.  Eloquence  may 
render  a  doubtful  service,  and  enthusiasm  be- 
come a  fickle  fire ;  but  the  clear  and  connected 
presentation  of  Scripture  truth  is  the  means  of  a 
rational  faith  and  an  abiding  Church. 

Why  are  the  Scotch  the  most  genuinely  re- 
ligious people  of  modern  times;  and,  small  in 
numbers  and  unfavored,  the  leaders  of  the  Eng- 
lish-speaking world  in  every  realm  of  higher 
thought  ?  Because  Scotland  for  generations  has 
had  a  thoughtful  and  devoted  pulpit,  whose  chief 

281 


282  Expository  Preaching 

work  has  been  the  thorough  teaching  of  the  Word 
of  God.  And  in  comparison,  the  fickle  rehgious 
life  of  our  own  land,  too  often  stimulated  by  sen- 
sations and  swept  by  novelties  of  doctrine,  is  the 
product  of  a  pulpit  eager  for  immediate  result, 
and  impatient  of  the  long  processes  of  spiritual 
instruction.  There  is  special  call  to-day  for  a 
teaching  ministry.  "The  teachers  shall  shine 
as  the  brightness  of  the  firmament,  and  they 
that  turn  many  to  righteousness  as  the  stars, 
for  ever  and  ever." 

Four  specific  objects  may  be  gained  by  a 
teaching  ministry:  growth  in  spiritual  knowl- 
edge; growth  in  Christian  graces;  light,  en- 
couragement, comfort,  to  the  doubting,  weary, 
and  sorrowing;  knowledge  of  duty  and  ways  of 
Christian  work,  to  present  the  complete  idea  of 
Christian  service. 

We  have  to  preach  a  life,  and  we  cannot  be 
content  until  we  help  men  to  fashion  their  own 
lives  after  the  divine  pattern.  Pastoral  teach- 
ing is  for  the  formation  of  right  moral  habits, 
and  for  the  discipline  and  direction  of  the 
spiritual  life.  It  includes  at  least  four  types  of 
sermons,  the  expository,  doctrinal,  apologetic, 
and  ethical.  The  classification,  while  in  no  sense 
strict,  may  be  justified  on  practical  grounds. 
Every  message  of  the  pulpit  should  be  exposi- 
tory, the  effort  to  interpret  and  apply  some 


Expository  Preaching  283 

word  of  God.  The  topical  sermon,  the  most 
frequent  form  in  the  American  pulpit,  differs 
only  in  the  freedom  and  individuality  of  its 
method.  Doctrinal,  apologetic,  ethical  sermons 
may  all  be  expositions,  or  treated  in  the  topical 
spirit.  However,  pastoral  teaching  demands 
special  attention  to  that  form  of  the  sermon  in 
which  the  element  of  instruction  is  stronger 
than  that  of  persuasion. 

Expository  sermons  are  the  hardest  to  give, 
and  the  most  needed  by  the  Church  to-day.  It 
is  true  that  the  people  do  not  ask  for  such  preach- 
ing with  any  united  or  insistent  voice,  but  their 
need  is  none  the  less  great.  The  objection  will 
be  made,  we  do  not  need  interpretation  of  the 
Bible  in  the  pulpit;  there  are  other  ways  for 
such  instruction;  we  know  now  more  than  we 
do;  but  we  need  to  be  roused  and  kindled  with 
eloquence.  But  the  many  will  never  have  re- 
ligious teaching  save  through  the  pulpit,  and 
the  instability  of  faith,  the  low  standards  of 
practice,  the  "itching  ears"  of  multitudes,  the 
followers  of  any  sensation  monger,  prove  that 
the  pulpit  by  more  thorough  instruction  must 
establish  the  Church  in  the  faith. 

A  more  serious  objection  is  found  in  the 
changed  attitude  towards  the  Scriptures.  As 
religious  literature  they  are  to  be  interpreted 
in  their  spirit,  not  letter,  not  in  the  authority 


284  Expository  Preaching 

of  single  passages,  but  as  the  record  of  religious 
movements  and  the  progressive  revelation  of 
God.  This  makes  the  expository  method,  the 
dealing  with  words  and  clauses,  useless,  it  is 
claimed.  Noble  religious  teachers  say  that 
the  day  of  the  expository  sermon  is  over. 
The  pulpit  must  use  a  larger,  freer  interpreta- 
tion. 

Then  it  is  held  that  life  is  a  continuous  reve- 
lation of  God,  and  that  the  removal  of  the  line 
between  sacred  and  secular,  the  recognition  of 
the  spiritual  element  in  all  life,  lessens  the  im- 
portance of  expository  sermons,  and  places  em- 
phasis upon  the  great  topics  of  religion. 

The  changed  attitude  towards  the  Bible  and 
life  does  call  for  a  new  spirit  and  method  in  ex- 
position, but  cannot  change  the  need  of  such 
preaching.  The  present  Bible  is  a  more  living 
message,  Christ  is  no  less  Saviour  and  Master; 
and  the  exposition  of  the  lives  and  events 
through  which  God  has  spoken,  especially  the 
interpretation  of  Christ  the  living  Word,  must 
ever  be  the  divinest  way  of  awakening  and  train- 
ing the  spiritual  life  of  men,  and  in  making  men 
realize  that  God  is  in  His  world. 

But  can  the  expository  sermon  be  made  in- 
teresting? And  the  question  is  an  implied  ob- 
jection. Spurgeon  tells  of  a  series  of  sermons 
on  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  in  his  boyhood. 


Expository  Preaching  285 

The  writer,  he  says,  in  that  Epistle  "  urges  us  to 
suffer  the  word  of  exhortation  —  and  we  did." 
But  there  is  no  reason  why  this  kind  of  preaching 
should  be  dull.  "If  we  put  into  our  expository 
work  the  fruits  of  our  hardest  thinking,  our  most 
affluent  reading,  and  our  most  spiritually  sensi- 
tive feeling,"  the  Word  will  stand  forth  in  some- 
thing of  its  rich  and  inspiring  life.  It  will  have 
unity  and  direction  as  the  Word  of  God  always 
has.  And  it  will  give  a  freer,  fuller  life  than  the 
unlimited  mind  of  any  man,  however  creative, 
can  of  itself  secure.  Dr.  Dale  speaks  of  a  sermon 
that  closed  his  Exposition  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Galatians,  a  summary  of  the  truth  of  the 
Epistle,  as  ''quite  as  exciting  as  a  fiery  pamphlet 
on  some  question  of  modern  party  politics." 
The  difficulties  are  partly  removed  if  we  have 
a  generous  conception  of  expository  preaching. 

What  is  expository  preaching?  Dr.  W.  M. 
Taylor,  in  his  "Ministry  of  the  Word,"  seems  to 
confine  it  to  the  continuous  and  consecutive 
treatment  of  a  book  of  the  Bible.  "By  exposi- 
tory preaching,  I  mean  that  method  of  pulpit 
discourse  which  consists  in  the  consecutive  in- 
terpretation and  practical  enforcement  of  a 
book  of  the  sacred  canon." 

Dr.  Dale,  of  Birmingham,  has  practically  the 
same  idea  of  the  expository  sermon,  when  he 
speaks    of   his    own    expository    sermons,    "in 


286  Expository  Preaching 

which  I  carefully  explained  and  illustrated, 
clause  by  clause,  verse  by  verse,  a  group  of 
chapters,  or  a  complete  book  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture." This  is  too  limited  a  view  of  the  ex- 
pository sermon,  both  as  to  its  matter  and 
method.  It  need  not  be  consecutive  treatment 
of  a  book,  and  it  is  not  compelled  to  proceed 
clause  by  clause,  and  verse  by  verse.  Such 
definition  needlessly  restricts  the  freedom  and 
variety  of  the  sermon,  and  makes  it  technical 
and  mechanical. 

It  is  enough  to  say  that  the  expository  sermon 
is  marked  by  two  features:  (1)  It  takes  for  its 
text  a  connected  passage ;  more  than  a  clause  or 
verse ;  a  Psalm,  a  parable,  an  argument  or  por- 
tion of  an  argument,  a  scene  or  narrative.  It 
may  have  no  connection  with  other  sermons; 
it  may  stand  by  itself-;  but  it  takes  a  connected 
passage  for  its  treatment.  Then  (2)  it  seeks 
to  give  in  a  clear  and  forcible  way  the  meaning 
of  the  passage,  the  truth  and  lessons  rightly 
taught  by  it.  It  is  a  faithful  answer  to  the 
question,  —  "What  is  the  mind  of  the  Spirit  in 
this  passage;  and  what  is  the  truth  here  for 
present  life?"  It  is  so  "to  combine  the  past 
and  the  present,  to  make  the  past  such  a  mirror 
of  the  present,  that  what  is  said  of  the  one  shall 
have  a  powerful  influence  in  moving  the  other." 
,  This  gives  great  freedom  and  adaptation  in  the 


Expository  Preaching  287 

choice  of  a  passage,  and  also  in  its  method  of  use 
within  the  Hmits  of  the  material  given. 

What  are  the  advantages  of  the  expository- 
sermon?  It  is  more  apt  to  bring  preacher  and 
hearer  into  direct  and  immediate  contact  with 
the  mind  of  the  Spirit.  If  this  is  the  result,  the 
exposition  must  be  vital.  It  must  be  of  such 
a  nature  that  the  living  Word  shall  speak;  not 
the  curious  explanation  of  a  dead  parchment,  but 
the  message  of  the  ever  present  Spirit. 

When  we  are  trying  diligently  to  make  the 
Scripture  live  with  the  power  of  Him  who  first 
inspired  its  writers,  we  are  more  apt  to  bring 
the  hearers  into  direct  and  immediate  contact 
with  His  mind.  We  are  seen  to  be  striving,  not 
after  human  fancies  and  theories,  but  after  the 
Word  of  God.  No  preacher  will  attempt  ex- 
pository preaching  unless  he  has  a  profound 
sense  of  a  divine  message  in  the  Bible.  If  its 
best  words  are  only  the  refinements  of  human 
reason  concerning  spiritual  things,  he  will  not 
have  the  patience  of  the  Biblical  student.  He 
will  wish  to  range  in  what  are  to  him  freer  and 
broader  fields.  And  on  the  other  hand,  where  a 
congregation  delight  in  expository  preaching, 
it  implies  an  unusual  respect  for  the  Scriptures 
and  interest  in  their  truth.  If  we  are  faithful 
expositors,  we  shall  have  the  authority  of  the 
Word  in  our  sermons. 


288  Expository  Preaching 

And  amid  all  the  conflict  of  opinions,  the  dim 
and  misty  strivings  of  the  human  heart,  surely 
men  are  longing  for  just  this,  the  authority  of  a 
Divine  word.  We  must  make  men  feel  that  we 
have  the  Word  of  God.  Oratory  is  nothing, 
even  genius  is  a  wandering  fire,  without  this  im- 
pression and  assurance  that  we  are  bringing 
God's  thought  to  men.  The  pulpit  is  not  the 
platform  nor  the  stump.  It  is  not  above  the 
same  laws  of  thought  and  style,  but  it  must 
depend  upon  a  higher  source  for  its  power. 

Expository  preaching  will  promote  the  Biblical 
knowledge  of  the  preacher  and  the  hearer.  The 
preacher  first :  he  feels  that  he  is  to  be  a  student 
of  the  Bible  first  of  all.  The  Bibhcal  idea  of  the 
preacher  is  the  learner.  We  know  a  few  things 
now,  by  study  and  experience,  the  rudiments  of 
the  Gospel,  It  is  not  true  that  we  are  unfit  to 
preach  and  ought  to  resign  our  commissions 
unless  we  are  masters  of  all  the  points  of  doc- 
trine and  of  Bible  knowledge.  But  we  are  to 
go  on  for  ourselves,  adding  to  our  knowledge, 
mastering  detail  after  detail,  period  after  period, 
book  after  book  —  so  that  we  may,  like  a  wise 
householder,  bring  forth  things  new  and  old. 
But  how  shall  we  do  this  ?  Is  it  feasible  for  the 
young  man,  with  the  complex  life  of  to-day,  the 
multiplying  demands  of  pulpit  and  parish,  to 
carry  on  lines  of  Biblical  study,  independent  of 


Expository  Preaching  289 

the  pulpit,  and  with  no  immediate  relation  to 
it?  The  experience  of  most  young  preachers 
gives  the  answer.  They  need  to  so  arrange 
their  work  that  the  study  shall  help  the  pulpit, 
and  the  plan  of  preaching  shall  demand  and 
promote  systematic  Bible  study.  Courses  of 
expository  preaching  will  do  this.  And  such 
method  will  make  the  preacher  an  expert  in 
religion,  and  his  message  one  of  increasing 
weight  and  power. 

Then  the  people  need  the  systematic  teaching 
implied  in  the  expository  sermon.  Are  not  the 
hazy  views  of  truth  due  in  large  measure  to  the 
loose  and  desultory  method  of  the  pulpit? 
To-day  the  sermon  may  be  from  the  sermon  on 
the  Mount;  to-morrow  from  Genesis,  and  then 
from  Isaiah  or  Revelation,  without  any  historical 
or  doctrinal  connection.  Lack  of  order  and 
system  is  one  of  the  gravest  faults  of  the  Amer- 
ican pulpit,  the  inevitable  result  of  an  un- 
scholarly  ministry.  Closely  allied  to  this  is 
the  false  habit  of  regarding  single  clauses  and 
even  words  of  Scripture  by  themselves,  and  so 
disregarding  the  general  current  of  its  history 
and  argument.  It  is  not  a  curiosity  shop  or  a 
mere  storehouse  of  texts,  it  is  a  divinely  gov- 
erned history.  God  has  spoken  to  the  race 
through  great  redemptive  facts,  and  with  these 
facts    the    truths    are    inseparably    connected. 


290  Expository  Preaching 

"Now  the  true  expository  method  is  likely  to 
lead  people  to  read  the  Bible  as  they  read  other 
books,  and  to  look  not  merely  at  separate 
thoughts  and  fragments  of  separate  thoughts, 
at  isolated  facts  and  the  most  insignificant  cir- 
'cumstances  connected  with  isolated  facts;  but 
at  facts  and  thoughts  in  masses,  and  as  they  are 
grouped  by  the  Scriptural  writers  themselves."  ^ 
Expository  preaching  promotes  an  intelligent, 
balanced  view  of  Christian  truth.  Such  preach- 
ing secures  variety  in  the  teaching  of  the  pulpit 
and  breadth  of  truth,  A  mere  topical  preacher 
will  soon  run  dry.  The  inventiveness  of  no 
single  mind  is  great  enough  to  meet  the  variety 
of  human  needs.  It  is  said  that  Dr.  John  Dick 
of  Scotland,  when  a  young  man,  went  to  a 
neighboring  minister  in  despair,  "What  shall 
I  do  ?  I  have  preached  all  I  know  to  the  people, 
and  have  nothing  else  to  give  them;  I  have 
gone  through  the  catechism,  and  what  have  I 
more?"  "The  catechism?"  his  friend  replied; 
"take  the  Bible,  mon,  it  will  take  you  a  long 
time  to  exhaust  that." 

Exposition  keeps  the  great  truths  from  being 
stereotyped,  for  they  are  presented  with  ever 
new  relations  in  the  Scripture.  Take  the  doc- 
trine of  regeneration  in  John  iii.  3  and  James  i.  18. 
The  new  relation  throws  new  light  upon  the  cen- 
^  Dale,  "Lectures  on  Preaching,"  p.  232, 


Expository  Preaching  291 

tral  truth.  Here,  the  simple  central  truths  of 
the  Gospel  are  set  in  an  infinite  variety  of  forms, 
and  we  shall  never  exhaust  the  variety.  The 
only  way  to  escape  from  the  weariness  and  profit- 
lessness  of  the  repetition  of  a  few  evangelical 
doctrines  is  to  be  interpreters  of  the  Scriptures, 
true  to  every  fact,  every  teaching  and  lesson  of 
their  pages. 

In  the  course  of  systematic  exposition,  the 
minister  will  treat  some  subjects  from  which  he 
would  otherwise  shrink.  Details  of  duty  and  of 
sin  may  be  pursued  without  danger  of  prejudice 
and  needless  offence.  They  will  be  received  as 
not  simply  the  preacher's  word,  but  as  imbedded 
in  the  very  course  of  Scripture  truth. 

"It  will  surprise  one  to  see  what  wealth  and 
variety  of  topics  will  come  up  for  illustration  in 
discussion,  by  means  of  expository  preaching. 
A  thousand  subtle  suggestions  and  a  thousand 
minute  points  of  human  experience,  not  large 
enough  for  the  elaborate  discussion  of  the  ser- 
mon, and  yet,  like  the  little  screws  of  the  watch, 
indispensable  to  the  right  action  of  the  machinery 
of  life,  can  be  touched  and  turned  to  advantage 
in  expository  preaching.  There  are  many  topics 
which,  from  the  excitement  of  the  time  and 
from  the  prejudice  of  the  people,  it  would  be 
difficult  to  discuss  topically  in  the  pulpit,  yet, 
taken  in  the  order  in  which  they  are  found  in 


292  Expository  Preaching 

Holy  Writ,  they  can  be  handled  with  profit  and 
without  danger.  The  Bible  touches  all  sides  of 
human  life  and  experience,  and  Scriptural  ex- 
perience gives  endless  opportunities  of  hitting 
folks  who  need  hitting.  The  Squire  can  hardly 
stamp  out  of  church  for  a  'Thus  saith  the 
Lord.'"^ 

In  this  method  the  preacher  will  acquire  a 
great  store  of  material  which  he  can  use  for  other 
purposes.  He  will  never  need  to  hunt  for  texts, 
foolishly  wasting  time  and  spirit,  but  texts  will 
fairly  press  for  treatment,  more  than  he  can 
ever  use,  as  his  study  continues.  Great  topics 
of  religion  will  rise  more  and  more,  in  their 
Scripture  induction,  gathering  constant  accre- 
tion from  study  and  experience.  And  a  multi- 
tude of  glimpses  and  side  lights,  of  shining  words 
and  apt  phrases  and  illustrations,  will  come  to 
his  hand. 

"For  many  years,  in  my  own  ministry,  I  have 
never  known  a  time  when  I  had  not  in  my  mind 
a  large  number  of  subjects,  each  of  which  was 
eager  to  receive  my  first  attention,  but  which  I 
was  compelled  to  detain,  that  it  might  wait  its 
turn.  And  so  the  question  has  been,  not  what 
can  I  get  to  preach,  but  rather,  which  one  of 
many  topics  has  the  most  pressing  claims  and 
the  most  immediate  interest  ?  Now,  I  trace  the 
^  Beecher,  "  Yale  Lectures,"  Vol.  I,  p.  225. 


Expository  Preaching  293 

existence  of  this  state  of  things  to  my  constant 
habit  of  expository  preaching,  on  at  least  one 
part  of  every  Lord's  day."  ^ 

The  freedom  and  variety  of  the  expository 
method  may  be  seen  in  the  study  of  the  follow- 
ing plans : 

I.   Isaiah  xxxv.  3-10, 

Theme:  The  King's  Highway. 

1.  Its  characteristics,  a  way  of  holiness. 

2.  The  objections  to  the  way;    and  the 

answers. 
a.  The  way  is  a  desert. 

But  there  are  springs  of  water,  oases 
in  the  desert ;   and  even  the  mirage 
shall  become  a  pool. 
6.   The  path  is  obscure. 

No;  it  is  the  King's  highway,  so 
plain  that  a  simple  man,  even  a 
child,  can  easily  keep  it. 

c.  It  is  a  dangerous  way. 
Nothing  shall  harm  you  therein. 
"No  lion  shall  be  there,"  etc. 

d.  But  the  way  is  long,  shall  we  ever 

reach  the  Fatherland  ? 
"The    ransomed    of   the    Lord   shall 
return,"  etc. 
Conclusion:  Therefore   strengthen  the  weak 
knees.     Be  strong,  fear  not. 

»  Taylor,  "The  Ministry  of  the  Word,"  p.  175. 


294  Expository  Preaching 

In  this  plan  the  eighth  verse  is  taken  as  the 
key  of  the  passage  and  furnishes  the  theme. 
The  plan  is  true  to  the  historical  fact,  but  the 
past  is  used  as  a  mirror  of  the  spiritual.  So 
the  whole  is  a  present  message,  and  the  plan 
uses  or  discards  elements  of  the  passage  that 
suit  the  present  purpose,  and  likewise  uses  the 
utmost  liberty  of  order. 

II.  Matt.  v.  1-12. 

Theme:  The  Christian  Conception  of  Char- 
acter. 

1.  It  enthrones  the  passive  virtues, 

2.  It  corrects  the  view  that  life  is  tested  by 

ordinances  and  activities. 

3.  It  is  not  a  natural  growth ;  the  acquire- 

ment of  supernatural  virtue. 

4.  An  ideal  to  be  realized.     ''Shall  be." 
Instead  of  discussing  the  passage,  verse  by 

verse,  an  easy  and  natural  thing  to  do,  the  plan 
finds  the  underlying  principles  that  have  ex- 
pression and  illustration  in  the  beatitudes,  and 
discusses  each  in  the  light  of  the  whole  passage. 
Such  a  method  gives  singleness  and  suggestive- 
ness,  and  combines  rhetorical  effectiveness  with 
exposition. 

III.  Matt.  xiii.  1-9.     (Plan  of  Dr.  C.  H.  Park- 

hurst.) 


Expository  Preaching  295 

Theme :  Responsibility  of  the  Hearer. 
Introduction:  The    significance    of    the    first 
parable,  and  the  two  principles  im- 
plied by  it,  viz. :  The  Word  of  God 
implanted,  not  innate,  and  the  oral 
method  of  making  the  truth  known. 
Development:  The    four    kinds    of    hearers, 
following   the   exact   order   of   the 
parable,  and  Christ's  interpretation. 
The  individuality  of  the  plan  is  in  the  sug- 
gestive introduction,  that  puts  the  parable  in  a 
new  light,  and  in  placing  the  finger  on  the  last 
verse  as  the  key  to  the  whole.     And  the  de- 
velopment is  made  unforgettable  by  the  vivid 
illustrations  and  the  powerful  appeal  to  con- 
science. 

IV.  Matt.  viii.  5-13.     (F.  W.  Robertson.) 

Theme :  Faith  of  the  Centurion. 
Introduction :  Christ  emphasized  faith ;  analy- 
sis of  its  nature  and  power. 
1.   The  faith  commended. 
a.  First  evidence  of  its  existence:    ten- 
derness to  his   servants,  caring  for 
"  our  nation." 
h.  Second     evidence:      His     humility, 
''Lord,  I  am  not  worthy."     Christ 
calls   this    faith.     How  faith   and 
humility  are  the  same. 


296  Expository  Preaching 

c.    Third  evidence :   His  belief  in  a  living 
will.     ''Speak  the  word  only."     The 
living  will  out  of  sight,  the  highest 
form  of  faith. 
2.   The  causes  of  the  commendation. 

a.  The  centurion,  a  Gentile,  unlikely  to 

know  revealed  truth. 

b.  A  soldier  with  peculiar  temptations. 
He   made    his    difficulties   means   of 

religious  life. 

Conclusion:  The  genuine  wonder  of  Jesus, 
mark  of  genuine  humanity.     Our  brother. 

The  plan  is  significant  for  its  suggestive  inter- 
pretation of  the  scene,  taking  out  and  naming 
the  distinctive  parts,  and  making  all  the  details 
contribute  to  these.  The  plan  is  weak  in  its 
conclusion,  not  the  telling  truth  of  it  all,  but 
simply  a  suggestion  attached. 

V.   Acts  iv.     (W.  M.  Taylor.) 

Theme :  Peter  before  the  Council. 

1.  The  orderly  narrative  of  the  chapter. 
The  two  classes  of  antagonists;    result, 

Peter  and  John  in  prison;  brought 
before  the  Council;  their  bearing 
and  spirit;  their  release. 

2.  Practical  inferences. 

a.   If  we  are  really  Christ's  we  must  ex- 
pect to  meet  antagonism. 


Expository  Preaching  297 

6.   We  shall  remind  the  world  of  Christ. 

c.  The  one  rule  of  our  lives  will  be  to 

hearken  unto  God. 

d.  Our  chosen  fellowship  will   be  with 

those  who  are  Christ's. 

e.  We  shall   betake  ourselves  in  every 

trial  to  the  throne  of  grace. 
Biographical  sermons  are  often  the  truest 
expositions.  There  is  something  timeless  in 
biography.  The  revelation  of  a  life  is  a  word 
for  all  times.  God's  Word  has  come  through 
living  men,  and  to  make  these  men  live  again 
is  a  certain  way  of  giving  reality  to  their  word. 
Dr.  Taylor  is  noted  among  preachers  for  his 
study  of  Bible  characters.  His  plans  have  a 
certain  sameness  that  only  his  rich  mind  and 
fervent  spirit  can  make  interesting.  He  gives 
the  narrative  or  scene  with  all  the  wealth  of 
modern  historical  study,  and  then  follows  with 
a  series  of  practical  observations.  The  method 
sometimes  leads  to  the  separation  of  life  and 
lesson,  and  the  lack  of  unity  and  singleness  of 
impression,  which  belong  to  life  and  the  greatest 
speech. 

VI.  John  xvi.  12-15.     (Alexander  Maclaren.) 

Therm:  The  Guide  into  all  Truth. 
Introduction:  The  promise  of  the  Comforter, 
the  last  expansion  here. 


298  Expository  Preaching 

1.  The  avowed  incompleteness  of  Christ's 

own  teaching,  v.  12. 
Reconciliation  with  xv.  15,  as  germ 
and  flower.  Why  Christ's  teaching 
incomplete?  12  (b).  Revelation 
measured  by  the  moral  and  spiritual 
capacity  of  man  to  receive.  The 
same  principle  holds  about  us. 

2.  The    completeness    of    the    truth    into 

which  the  Spirit  guides,     v.  13. 

a.  The  personality,  designation,  office  of 
the  new  teacher. 

6.   He  guides.     ''Into  all  truth." 

No  promise  of  omniscience,  the  assur- 
ance of  gradual  acquaintance. 

c.  "Not  speak  of  Himself":   relation  of 

the  Spirit  as  teacher  to  Jesus,  and 
of  Jesus  to  the  Father. 

d.  "Things    to    come."     This    promise 

applies  in  a  unique  fashion  to  the 
original    hearers.     The    inspiration 
and  authority  of  the  Apostles. 
Modified  application  to  us. 

3.  Our  Lord's  pointing  out  the  unity  of 

these  two.  v.  14,  15.  "He  shall 
glorify  me."  No  man.  14  (a). 
All  is  Christ.  14  (b).  No  new 
revelation,  the  interpretation  of  the 
old. 


Expository  Preaching  299 

4.   Lessons. 

a.   Seek  the  divine  Spirit  given  to  all. 

6.    Use  the  book  that  He  uses. 

c.  Try  the  spirits. 
This  plan  is  a  good  example  of  Alexander 
Maclaren's  orderly  and  unified  exposition.  He 
gives  the  exact  truth  of  the  passage  in  the  pro- 
portion and  emphasis  of  the  writer.  Not  a 
detail  is  omitted  and  yet  they  are  so  massed 
that  they  lift  up  the  great  teachings  of  the 
passage,  and  these  together  make  the  singleness 
of  his  message.  He  stands  out  among  modern 
preachers  for  his  accurate  scholarship,  spiritual- 
mindedness,  and  the  creative  imagination  that 
sees  the  truth  and  makes  all  things  minister  to 
its  expression.  If  young  men  would  master 
the  art  of  expository  preaching,  let  them  study 
the  work  of  Alexander  Maclaren. 

Suggestions  as  to  Expository  Method. 
1.  Select  a  passage  that  has  a  central  thought, 
or  take  out  of  the  passage  some  impor- 
tant truth  for  your  theme,  and  discuss  it 
in  the  light  of  the  entire  passage.  Study 
variety  in  the  choice  of  passage,  a  par- 
able, a  miracle,  a  narrative,  a  scene,  a 
poem,  a  doctrine,  a  duty,  a  character, 
an  inductive  study  of  some  great  truth, 
a  book  in  course;    the  expository  ser- 


300  Expository  Preaching 

mon  need  not  suffer  from  sameness  of 
choice. 

2.  Secure  a  true  rhetorical  order  of  treatment. 

The  passage  will  often  be  in  the  most 
natural  and  effective  order,  but  if  not, 
rearrange  or  select  such  as  are  best  for 
your  use. 

3.  Remember  that  the  chief  business  of  ex- 

position is  to  so  present  truth  that  it 
shall  make  its  strongest  appeal  to  life. 

Therefore  the  explanation  should  be  un- 
mistakable and  positive.  It  should  not 
leave  the  hearer  in  doubt.  Where  there 
are  several  views,  one  should  be  chosen 
that  seems  the  most  reasonable  and 
practical.  The  details  of  exegesis  should 
not  cover  up  the  central  thought,  but 
lift  it  up,  illuminating  and  enforcing  it. 
The  sermon  should  not  be  a  mass  of 
chips,  but  a  finished  work ;  not  processes 
but  results  are  demanded  in  the  sermon. 
"This  or  that  detail  should  not  be  pur- 
sued or  elaborated,  however  important 
in  itself,  if  it  does  not  enforce  and  illu- 
minate the  central  idea." 

The  weakness  of  some  pulpit  expositions 
is  their  closeness  and  compactness  of 
thought,  not  simple  enough  and  bold 
enough  in  outline  for  the  popular  mind ; 


Expository  Preaching  301 

clear  enough  for  the  eye,  but  not  for  the 
ear;  lacking  in  singleness  of  thought 
and  in  the  expansion  of  the  thought 
through  varied  repetition  so  as  to  make 
the  message  interesting  and  effective  to 
many  hearers.  Make  the  exposition 
as  short  as  you  can,  consistent  with 
clearness  and  vividness,  and  then  pass 
to  the  practical  discussion  and  applica- 
tion of  the  truth,  and  make  this  full  and 
effective. 

Use  every  power  of  illustration,  argument, 
and  appeal  in  the  practical  part.  The 
expository  sermon  should  not  fall  into 
the  dry  and  didactic  manner.  Illustra- 
tion especially  will  be  needed  to  make 
the  instruction  bright  and  persuasive. 
It  must  be  far  removed  from  mere  com- 
mentary. The  material  must  be  abun- 
dant and  choice,  the  best  results  of 
reading  and  culture. 

Study  variety  of  treatment.  The  mode 
of  discussion  will  depend  upon  the  na- 
ture of  the  passage  as  truly  as  in  the 
topical  method.  There  was  a  marked 
change  in  the  preaching  of  Dr.  Dale. 
At  first,  his  expositions  were  verse  by 
verse.  Afterward,  he  read  the  passage 
and  commented  on  needed  points,  and 


302  Expository  Preaching 

then  preached  from  a  single  text.  It 
was  more  rapid  and  effective,  gave 
broad  historic  views,  and  escaped  the 
evils  of  a  microscopic  criticism  —  the 
examining  of  Niagara,  drop  by  drop. 
Variety  may  be  specially  used  in  modes 
of  application.  Three  methods  are 
always  open  to  the  preacher:  (1)  Ex- 
position .  and  the  lesson.  (Guthrie, 
Chalmers,  Maclaren,  Taylor.)  (2)  Ap- 
plication after  each  part.  (Spurgeon, 
Parker.)  (3)  The  appeal  woven  with 
the  entire  fabric  of  the  sermon.  It  were 
well  if  the  preacher  were  more  often 
skilled  to  do  the  last,  the  highest  form 
of  teaching.  Hawthorne's  words  may 
have  proper  reference  to  the  sermon. 
"When  romances  really  do  teach  any- 
thing, it  is  usually  through  a  more 
subtle  process  than  the  ostensible  one. 
The  author  has  considered  it  hardly 
worth  his  while  relentlessly  to  impale 
his  story  with  its  moral,  as  with  an  iron 
rod,  or  rather  as  by  sticking  a  pin 
through  a  butterfly  —  thus  at  once 
depriving  it  of  life,  and  causing  it  to 
stiffen  in  an  ungainly  and  unnatural 
attitude.  A  high  truth,  indeed,  fairly, 
finely,  and  skilfully  wrought  out,  bright- 


Expository  Preaching  303 

ening  at  every  step,  and  crowning  the 
final  development  of  a  work  of  fiction, 
may  add  an  artistic  glory,  but  is  never 
any  truer,  and  seldom  any  more  evident, 
at  the  last  page  than  at  the  first."  ^ 
Begin  with  single  experiments,  as  a  miracle 
or  parable,  and  repeat  it  until  you  form 
the  habit  and  you  know  how  to  make 
such  work  interesting  and  effective. 
Do  not  give  it  up  because  it  is  easier  to 
do  something  else,  and  your  people 
prefer  something  that  will  demand  less 
attention.  Try  the  method  in  the 
prayer  meeting,  as  a  preparation  for  the 
pulpit.  Such  work  would  rescue  the  mid- 
week meeting  from  aimless  monotony. 
The  method  persisted  in  will  make  you 
an  instructive.  Biblical  preacher,  and 
build  up  a  thoughtful,  spiritual  church. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  the  micro- 
scopic study  may  always  be  a  danger 
to  the  prophetic  vision.  But  no 
preacher  need  be  a  mere  expositor. 
Imagination  and  feeling  must  give  light 
and  heat  to  learning.  "The  preaching 
which  is  strong  in  its  appeal  to  authority, 
wide  in  its  grasp  of  truth,  convincing 
in  its  appeal  to  reason,  and  earnest  in 
*  "House  of  Seven  Gables,"  Preface,  p.  4. 


304  Expository  Preaching 

its  address  to  conscience  and  the  heart, 
all  of  these  at  once,  that  preaching  which 
comes  nearest  to  the  type  of  the  apos- 
tolic epistles,  is  the  most  complete  and 
so  the  most  powerful  approach  of  truth 
to  the  whole  man,  and  so  is  the  kind  of 
preaching  which,  with  due  freedom 
granted  to  our  idiosyncrasies,  it  is  best 
for  us  all  to  seek  and  educate."  * 

*  Phillips  Brooks,  "  Lectures  on  Preaching,"  p.  132. 


XV 

DOCTRINAL  PREACHING 


OUTLINE 

Reasons  for  the  Decline  of  Doctrinal  Preaching. 

Reaction  from  extreme  doctrinal  preaching. 

The  unfavorable  atmosphere  of  modern  life. 

Question  as  to  the  value  of  doctrinal  preaching. 

The  questions  of  duty  foremost. 

The  growth  of  Christian  agnosticism. 

The  difficulty  of  formulating  and  teaching  doctrine. 

The  hmited  sphere  of  doctrine. 
The  need  of  Doctrinal  Preaching. 

A  wrong  method  and  spirit  of  doctrinal  preaching. 

Doctrine  essential  to  Christian  life. 

The  great  truths  unchangeable  in  importance  and  attrac- 
tion. 
How  should  Doctrine  be  preached  7 

Scriptural,  not  merely  confessional. 

The  Expositor  the  best  teacher  of  doctrine. 

Doctrine  in  the  light  of  its  purpose. 

Not  chiefly  through  logic. 

The  great  preachers  have  dwelt  upon  doctrine. 
Apologetic  Sermons. 

The  wrong  and  right  use  of  apologetics. 

The  Bible  examples  of  true  apologetics. 

The  urgent  need  to-day. 

The  sincere  questioning  spirit. 
How  shall  the  Apologist  in  the  pulpit  do  his  work? 

By  the  understanding  of  the  times. 

Elements  of  the  new  environment  of  faith. 

Apologetics  to  be  preached  only  as  needed. 

They  must  show  the  reasonableness  of  faith. 

They  should  be  occasional,  not  systematic. 

References : 

Beecher.     "Yale  Lectures."     3d  Series. 
Jefferson.  "The  Minister  as  a  Prophet."     Lect.  5. 
Forsythe.      "Positive  Preaching  and  the  Modern 

Mind." 
Tucker.     "The  Making  and    the    Unmaking  of 

the  Preacher."     Lect.  5. 
Bruce.      "Apologetics." 

Bishop  Alexander.      "Primary  Convictions." 
P.  Carnegie  Simpson.     "The  Fact  of  Christ." 
306 


XV 

DOCTRINAL  PREACHING 

The  present  tendency  of  many  pulpits  to 
ignore  doctrine,  to  put  life  over  against  doc- 
trine, is  a  reaction  from  the  extreme  doctrinal 
preaching  of  the  former  generation,  when  ser- 
mons like  those  of  Timothy  Dwight  and  Na- 
thaniel Emmons  formed  a  veritable  ''body  of 
divinity."  Moreover,  our  age  is  not  a  favor- 
able atmosphere  for  doctrinal  preaching.  The 
intensity  of  industrial  and  social  life  has  weak- 
ened contemplation  and  fostered  the  sensa- 
tional spirit.  Men  ask  for  brightness,  and  com- 
fort, and  inspiration  from  the  pulpit,  and  not 
for  the  exact  and  hard  thinking  of  doctrine. 
There  is  also  a^  question  whether  the  high  doc- 
trinal preaching  of  former  days  had  its  proper 
effect  upon  present  life,  whether  the  emphasis 
upon  other  worldliness  did  not  lead  to  a  dis- 
regard of  the  practical  problems  of  this  world, 
and  to  a  partial  and  nerveless  morality.  The 
central  thought  of  Christ  is  life,  and  this  must 

307 


308  Doctrinal  Preaching 

be  interpreted  not  in  terms  of  the  future  merely, 
but  of  the  present,  a  righteous  Ufe,  personal  and 
social.  Has  there  not  been  the  long  teaching 
of  dogma,  man's  speculations  about  truth,  and 
the  neglect  of  the  plain  ethics  of  Christ?  No 
doubt  the  popular  plea  of  life  without  dogma 
is  often  the  excuse  of  unbelief,  but  it  has  within 
it  an  earnest  seeking  for  life. 

Questions  of  duty  are  those  that  press  for 
answer.  For  we  have  come  into  a  new  world  of 
work  and  relation,  that  demands  constant  read- 
justment of  life,  and  restatement  of  principle. 
The  ethical  idea  is  a  progressive  one.  The  old 
individualism  will  not  answer.  We  live  in  an 
age  of  growing  social  consciousness.  What  are 
we  to  do  with  houses  and  wages?  What  is  to 
be  the  relation  of  men  in  work  and  society? 
What  has  Christianity  to  do  with  the  real  life 
of  the  world?  The  social  problem  naturally 
turns  the  thought  of  men  from  dogma,  intel- 
lectual conceptions  of  truth,  to  the  practical 
issues  that  press  so  heavily  upon  all. 

Then  we  live  in  a  new  earth  and  under  a  new 
heaven.  The  days  of  our  grandfathers  seem 
nearer  to  the  first  century  than  to  the  twentieth. 
The  marvels  of  the  new  science,  the  transforma- 
tions of  the  new  inventions,  suggest  the  partial 
nature  of  our  former  knowledge.  If  there  have 
been  such  unfoldings  of  the  natural  world,  may 


Doctrinal  Preaching  309 

there  not  also  be  of  the  spiritual  ?  Can  the  in- 
finite mystery  of  Godliness  be  put  so  surely  and 
confidently  into  the  postulates  of  human  reason  ? 
Can  we  map  out  the  Godward  side  of  truth  as 
clearly  as  we  do  our  garden  walks?  With  the 
agnosticism  that  denies  the  possibility  of  reve- 
lation, is  the  Christian  agnosticism  that  comes 
from  the  humihtythat  "we  know  in  part."  It 
is  not  willing  to  speak  of  some  things  that 
seemed  certain  to  the  fathers. 

The  increased  difficulty  of  formulating  and 
teaching  doctrine  enters  into  the  problem.  The 
Biblical  materials  of  doctrine  have  changed. 
No  thoughtful  man  would  think  of  stating  Bib- 
lical doctrine  to-day  by  the  use  of  Cruden's  Con- 
cordance. The  progressive  nature  of  revelation 
must  be  considered  and  each  statement  treated 
in  the  light  of  the  author  and  the  age.  Has  the 
preacher  sufficient  grasp  of  the  materials  of 
doctrine  ? 

Philosophy  has  had  no  little  to  do  with  the 
conception  and  form  of  doctrine.  Have  we  a 
clear  and  consistent  philosophy  wherewith  to 
express  the  materials  of  Bible  knowledge  and 
Christian  experience?  Shall  we  express  truth 
in  the  form  of  law  or  of  life  ?  Shall  we  bring 
the  Hebrew  modes  of  thought  into  the  scientific 
temper  of  to-day?  Or  shall  we  dress  truth  in 
present  modes? 


310  Doctrinal  Preaching 

The  doctrine  of  God  —  shall  the  emphasis 
be  upon  the  transcendence  of  God  and  His  un- 
likeness  to  man,  or  upon  His  immanence  and 
the  kinship  of  God  and  man?  Or  take  the 
doctrine  of  the  Atonement  —  Shall  the  truth 
bear  the  form  of  human  sacrifices,  or  express 
the  law  of  the  inner  life  ?  In  such  questions  is 
seen  the  difficulty  of  doctrinal  preaching.  And 
in  the  face  of  the  difficulty  many  earnest  minds 
have  been  uncertain. 

And  finally,  the  growing  spiritual  life  of  the 
Church  has  limited  the  sphere  of  doctrinal 
teaching.  Christ's  last  prayer  is  being  slowly 
reahzed  in  the  growing  unity  of  His  disciples. 
The  things  that  differ,  born  of  the  polemic 
spirit,  that  found  their  place  in  many  of  the 
creeds,  are  giving  way  to  the  things  that  make 
for  peace,  born  of  the  spirit  of  love.  There  is  a 
false  tolerance  of  moral  indifference,  that  in- 
cludes everything  of  a  religious  name,  that  does 
not  discriminate  between  truth  and  error,  but 
the  true  tolerance  that  ''consists  in  the  love  of 
truth  and  the  love  of  man,  harmonized  in 
the  love  of  God"  will  dwell  upon  those  simple 
and  central  truths  of  the  Gospel  that  bind  men 
in  the  fellowship  of  a  common  love  and 
service. 

It  must  be  frankly  admitted  that  present 
tendencies  are  against  doctrinal  preaching.    As 


Doctrinal  Preaching  311 

far  as  these  tendencies  are  for  a  practical  reli- 
gion, we  must  feel  that  they  are  wholesome. 
But  so  far  as  practical  religion  is  separated  from 
true  belief  and  devotional  practice,  so  far  the 
tendency  is  unwholesome.  The  lower  streams 
cannot  be  kept  full  save  by  unbroken  connection 
with  the  upper  springs. 

The  loss  of  doctrinal  preaching  has  been  at- 
tributed to  the  loss  of  spiritual  life.  "There  is 
widespread  spiritual  desolation  and  widespread 
indifference  to  dogma,"  and  the  conclusion  is 
dogmatically  drawn  that  they  are  cause  and 
effect.  The  Hfe  of  our  age  is  too  complex,  the 
spirit  of  worldliness  is  too  subtle,  to  admit  of 
this  easy  logic.  The  dislike  of  doctrinal  preach- 
ing is  often  due  to  the  wrong  method  and  spirit, 
and  not  from  indifference  to  the  great  truths 
thus  expressed.  "Men  who  are  looking  for  a 
law  of  life  and  an  inspiration  of  life  are  met  by 
a  theory  of  life."  Christ  gives  hfe.  To  make 
Christ  living  and  life-giving  is  the  work  of  the 
preacher.  "All  that  has  come  to  me  about 
Him  from  His  word,  all  that  has  grown  clear 
to  me  about  His  nature,  or  His  methods,  by 
my  inward  or  outward  experience,  all  that  He 
has  told  me  about  Himself,  becomes  part  of  the 
message  that  I  must  tell  to  those  men  whom  He 
has  sent  me  to  call  home  to  Himself.  I  will 
do  this  in  its  fulness.    And  this  is  the  preaching 


312  Doctrinal  Preaching 

of  doctrine,  positive,  distinct,  characteristic 
Christian  truth."  * 

The  preaching  of  doctrine,  then,  is  essential. 
Truth  is  the  source  of  Hfe.  And  doctrine  is  the 
effort  to  reach  clear  thought  as  to  the  person 
and  word  and  work  of  Christ.  The  loss  of 
clear,  positive  convictions  as  to  Christ  must  in 
the  end  be  the  wreck  of  morals. 

Doctrine  has  to  do  with  the  strength  of  the 
Christian  life.  It  is  inseparable  from  firm  con- 
viction and  pure  emotion  and  masterful  will. 
Strong  convictions  come  from  clear  views. 
Clear  views  mean  that  the  facts  and  truths  of 
Scripture  have  distinct  form,  and  this  is  doc- 
trine. Pure  emotions  are  born  of  clear  percep- 
tions. This  means  truths  in  their  proportion 
and  relation,  and  this  is  only  another  name  for 
doctrine.  The  will  acts  upon  convictions  and 
is  moved  by  feeling.  So  the  whole  religious 
life  depends  upon  Christian  doctrine,  properly 
understood. 

The  Gospel,  then,  and  the  human  mind  both 
demand  the  teaching  of  Christian  doctrine.  It 
is  a  misreading  of  life  to  interpret  the  popular 
dislike  of  dogma  as  indifference  to  the  great 
truths  of  God  and  the  soul  of  man.  No  ques- 
tions are  so  perennial  as  those  of  religion.  No 
person  is  so  thoroughly  alive,  present  in  the  life 
^  Brooks,  "Yale  Lectures,"  p.  128. 


Doctrinal  Preaching  313 

of  the  world,  as  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ. 
"These  high  themes  have  not  lost  their  charm. 
They  are  vitally  related  to  our  well-being.  Man 
has  great  concern  in  every  one  of  them.  God, 
Christ,  the  Holy  Spirit,  character,  duty,  respon- 
sibility, the  soul,  immortality,  destiny,  are 
themes  that  are  more  closely  related  to  our 
personal  interests  than  taxes,  wages,  or  tariff. 
These  are  the  chief  sources  of  our  comfort. 
They  supply  our  strongest  incentives  to  right- 
eousness. Here  are  the  bonds  of  our  social  fab- 
ric, the  roots  of  our  civilization.  From  them 
alone  comes  the  hope  of  a  redeemed  earth,  and 
a  new  era  for  the  race." 

And  what  shall  mark  our  preaching  of  doc- 
trine ?  It  should  be  scriptural,  not  merely  con- 
fessional, and  always  interpreted  in  the  Spirit  of 
Christ.  The  facts  abide.  Truth  is  unchanged 
and  unchanging,  but  the  doctrine,  the  form  of 
stating  the  truth,  must  change.  It  is  so  in  the 
natural  world,  and  it  must  be  so  in  the  spiritual 
world.  The  expositor  will  be  the  best  teacher 
of  doctrine.  It  will  be  Biblical  more  than  dog- 
matic theology.  Dr.  Dale  preached  a  theology 
coming  from  his  study  of  John,  and  then  these 
conceptions  he  tried  to  interpret  through  the 
Pauline  forms.  If  doctrine  is  approached 
through  Scripture  interpretation  rather  than 
philosophic  study,  its  teaching  will  have  variety 


314  Doctrinal  Preaching 

and  adaptation  and  freedom  from  dogmatism. 
Truth  is  shown  on  its  many  sides,  to  fit  differ- 
ent natures  and  conditions.  The  New  Testa- 
ment writers  do  not  seem  to  teach  any  single, 
consistent  theory  of  the  Atonement,  but  each 
man  looks  at  the  wondrous  mystery  from  his 
own  nature  and  training  and  necessities.  In 
the  Scriptures  it  is  always  doctrine  through 
life,  through  personal  experience.  And  so  the 
truth  is  presented  in  its  practical  aspects. 

The  true  teacher  of  doctrine  must  understand 
the  development  of  doctrine,  the  forces  and  steps 
through  which  truth  has  come  to  its  present 
creedal  form,  or  there  will  be  misstatement  or 
wrong  emphasis  upon  the  teaching  of  the  Gospel. 

Men  must  distinguish  between  the  wrappings 
of  truth,  that  match  the  environment  of  the 
age,  and  the  essential  truth  itself.  The  state- 
ment of  God's  sovereignty  in  the  Westminster 
Confession  was  the  voice  of  a  monarchical  age, 
before  the  rise  of  the  democratic  spirit  and  the 
worth  of  the  common  man,  and  the  voice  of  an 
age  lacking  in  humanity,  when  a  hundred  crimes 
were  punishable  with  death.  It  is  no  disparage- 
ment to  that  noble  confession  to  say  that  it 
was  impossible  for  such  an  age  properly  to  ex- 
press the  Fatherhood  of  God.  Every  doctrine 
should  be  viewed  and  discussed  in  the  light  of 
its  purpose,  living  truth,  not  mere  speculation. 


Doctrinal  Preaching  315 

A  doctrine  that  cannot  feed  the  soul  and  give 
more  life  is  quite  sure  to  be  something  other 
than  the  Word  of  Christ. 

Doctrine  should  be  taught  with  large  charity 
for  those  whose  speculative  beliefs  prevent 
them  from  assent  to  our  position;  but  with 
firm  and  steady  insistence  upon  duty  and  the  su- 
premacy of  conscience.  The  doctrinal  preacher 
is  in  great  danger  from  rationalism  and  dogma- 
tism. Christianity  is  reasonable,  and  must 
make  its  constant  appeal  to  reason,  but  obedi- 
ence, not  reason,  is  the  organ  of  spiritual  knowl- 
edge. Correct  belief  is  not  an  unimportant 
matter.  But  the  primary  question  is  ethical 
and  not  theological,  the  attitude  of  the  inner 
life  towards  the  ideal  presented  by  Christ.  If 
the  inmost  desire  turns  towards  Him,  it  is  the 
path  of  moral  ascent;  and  away  from  Him  is 
the  path  of  moral  decline.  Logic  is  not  to  take 
the  highest  place  in  doctrinal  preaching.  The 
truth  must  not  contradict  reason,  but  it  must 
appeal  to  experience,  and  be  clothed  in  the 
rhetorical  form,  warm  and  pulsating  with  feel- 
ing and  imagination.  The  preacher  who  deals 
endlessly  in  logic  feeds  only  a  few  natures,  and 
cultivates  only  one  faculty,  and  is  rarely  able 
to  apprehend  the  fullest  truth.  For  the  Gospel 
truth  is  the  complement  to  the  entire  nature  of 
man. 


316  Doctrinal  Preaching 

There  should  be  the  systematic  teaching  of 
doctrine,  so  that  from  the  inductive  use  of  the 
Scriptures  the  people  will  know  the  great  doc- 
trines of  Christianity.  And  it  is  wise  to  use 
present  interest  in  any  truth,  e.g.  the  Atonement, 
for  full  instruction.  ''The  preachers  that  have 
always  held  and  moved  men  have  always 
preached  doctrine.  No  exhortation  to  a  good 
life  that  does  not  put  behind  it  some  truth  as 
deep  as  eternity  can  seize  and  hold  the  con- 
science. Preach  doctrine,  preach  all  the  doc- 
trine that  you  know,  and  learn  forever  more 
and  more.  But  preach  it  always  not  that  men 
may  believe  it,  but  that  men  may  be  saved  by 
believing  it.  So  it  shall  be  alive  and  not  dead. 
So  men  shall  rejoice  in  it,  not  deny  it;  so  they 
shall  feed  on  it  at  your  hands,  as  on  the  bread 
of  life,  solid  and  sweet,  and  claiming  for  itself 
the  appetite  of  man  which  God  made  for  it."  ^ 

Apologetic  Sermons.  —  There  are  those  who 
say  that  Apologetics  have  no  place  in  the  pul- 
pit. Christianity  is  aggressive.  Never  put  your- 
self on  the  defensive.  All  doubt  is  sin.  The 
only  cure  is  the  Gospel.  Preach  that  fearlessly 
whether  men  hear  or  forbear.  If  men  feel  in 
this  way  they  can  never  have  the  true  apologetic 
element  in  their  sermons.  But  the  feeling  is 
based  on  a  wrong  conception  of  apologetics  and 
'  Brooks,  "  Yale  Lectures,"  p.  129. 


Doctrinal  Preaching  317 

a  wrong  attitude  towards  men.  If  we  take 
apologetics  in  its  technical  sense,  as  "the  scien- 
tific representation  of  the  grounds  on  which 
Christian  theology  in  so  far  as  it  is  a  part  of 
human  knowledge  rests  and  may  be  vindi- 
cated," we  may  deny  it  a  place  in  the  pulpit. 
Or  if  we  take  it  in  the  loose  popular  sense,  as 
an  apology,  meaning  an  excuse,  something  for 
which  we  are  ashamed,  it  certainly  has  no  place 
in  the  pulpit.  Neither  of  these  ideas  is  in  the 
Greek  word  "Apologia,"  and  its  use  by  early 
Christian  teachers.  It  means  a  defence  of 
truth,  upon  whatever  grounds  that  defence 
may  be  based.  Who  of  us  will  say  that  the 
truth  of  the  Gospel  shall  never  be  defended  in 
the  pulpit? 

We  have  many  examples  of  apologetics  in 
the  Bible.  Using  the  word  in  its  proper  sense, 
some  of  the  most  striking  parts  of  the  Bible 
are  apologies.  The  book  of  Job  is  such.  It 
deals  with  one  of  the  primal  questions  that  lies 
at  the  basis  of  religion.  In  view  of  human  suf- 
fering, is  God  good  ?  And  the  value  of  the  book 
of  Job  is  that  it  treats  the  elemental  truths  of 
religion  with  perfect  fairness;  it  does  not  hide 
any  fact.  It  does  not  try  to  make  facts  har- 
monize with  theory,  but  first  of  all,  asks,  what 
is  true?  Such  a  book  has  great  value  to-day 
for  the  pulpit,  for  men  are  asking  the  first  ques- 


318  Doctrinal  Preaching 

tions  all  about  us  with  passionate  earnestness. 
And  such  a  book  has  the  value  of  being  "time- 
less and  passionless,"  the  facts  and  motives  and 
truths  laid  bare,  stripped  of  the  feeling  and 
prejudice  of  present  persons  and  parties.  Christ 
sometimes  acts  the  part  of  an  apologist.  It  is 
true  that  He  speaks  with  authority.  "I  say 
unto  you."  There  is  a  positive  tone.  He 
stands  as  the  master  of  truth  and  life.  And  yet 
in  view  of  the  dulness  of  men,  and  their  slow- 
ness of  heart.  He  is  willing  to  reason,  remove 
the  errors,  defend  His  course  and  views.  His 
teaching  of  the  value  of  life,  the  humblest  and 
the  most  sinful,  is  brought  out  as  a  defence 
against  the  criticism  of  Pharisaic  exclusiveness. 
The  word  Apologist  has  been  truthfully  applied 
to  the  Apostle  Paul.  Standing  on  the  castle 
stairs  at  Jerusalem,  he  says,  "Brethren  and 
fathers,  hear  ye  my  defence,  which  I  now 
make  unto  you."  (Acts  xxii.  1.)  Twice  in 
writing  to  the  Philippians  he  puts  himself  in 
the  same  attitude.  He  tells  them  that  in  his 
bonds  and  in  his  defence  and  confirmation  of 
the  Gospel  they  are  partakers  of  his  grace. 
(Phil.  i.  7.)  And  "  I  am  set  for  the  defence  of 
the  Gospel."  (vs.  17).  The  whole  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews  is  in  this  sense  an  Apology,  try- 
ing to  remove  difficulties  and  misconceptions 
from   the   minds   of  the   Jews,   and   revealing 


Doctrinal  Preaching  319 

Jesus  as  the  hope  of  Israel,  the  "Gospel  for  a 
time  of  transition,"  as  Bishop  Westcott  so 
finely  interprets  it. 

Not  only  have  we  good  Scripture  warrant 
for  apologetics,  but  there  is  urgent  need  for 
their  wise  use.  We  cannot  be  true  to  all  our 
hearers  without  using  this  element.  The  major- 
ity of  the  congregation  may  have  few  difficulties ; 
but  there  is  little  provincialism  and  isolation 
to-day,  and  there  is  more  religious  unrest  than 
we  may  think  from  the  surface.  There  are 
thoughtful  unbelievers,  and  young  men  and 
women  in  the  critical  state  of  transition  from 
a  traditional  to  a  personal  faith.  The  minister 
who  does  not  think  of  these  minds,  and  sympa- 
thize with  them,  and  try  to  lead  them  into  a 
reasonable  faith,  will  lose  his  hold  upon  the  life 
of  the  community.  Many  a  church  is  leading  a 
feeble  life,  giving  a  flickering  light,  because  of 
the  constrained  and  mechanical  way  that  the 
truth  is  spoken.  We  may  preach  strongly 
upon  justification  by  faith,  and  give  the  Scrip- 
ture teachings  of  the  Atonement,  and  this 
teaching  will  help  those  prepared  for  it ;  but  to 
others  it  will  only  be  words  thrown  into  the 
wind,  to  men  who  are  still  stumbling  over  the 
alphabet  of  religion.  Shall  we  have  no  word  for 
these  troubled  and  anxious  minds  ? 

How  shall  we  perform  this  duty  of  Apologist 


320  Doctrinal  Preaching 

in  the  pulpit  ?  It  may  be  answered,  first  of  all, 
we  must  have  an  understanding  of  the  times. 
New  elements  have  come  into  the  problem,  and 
these  we  must  understand,  or  we  shall  be  setting 
up  men  of  straw.  A  true  apologetic  is  to  ad- 
just faith  to  its  intellectual  and  social  environ- 
ment, to  help  men  hold  faith  in  new  realms  of 
truth,  to  hold  fast  to  that  which  cannot  be 
shaken.  Think  of  the  new  environment  into 
which  the  Church  has  come;  and  in  which  we 
must  so  present  Christ  that  He  will  be  the 
power  and  wisdom  of  God. 

1.  A  new  way  of  looking  at  the  universe 
through  Evolution. 

2.  A  new  way  of  looking  at  the  Bible,  through 
the  science  of  Biblical  criticism. 

3.  A  new  view  of  the  religious  history  of 
mankind,  through  the  modern  science  of  com- 
parative religion. 

We  should  preach  apologetics  only  as  we  are 
sure  of  the  need.  Single  cases  may  often  best 
be  met  in  private  conversation  and  by  sugges- 
tions as  to  reading.  It  might  be  a  mistake  to 
disturb  the  minds  of  an  audience  with  diffi- 
culties that  have  never  come  to  them,  for  the 
sake  of  meeting  the  need  of  two  or  three  per- 
sons whom  we  can  reach  in  a  far  more  personal 
way  than  from  the  pulpit.  We  cannot  decide 
this  matter  from  our  own  reading  and  intellec- 


Doctrinal  Preaching  321 

tual  interest,  but  from  the  careful  study  of  the 
parish.  When  we  feel  the  necessity  of  apologet- 
ics in  the  pulpit,  two  things  should  govern 
our  method.  They  should  not  be  preached  in  a 
dry  and  mechanical  way,  but  with  a  sym- 
pathetic spirit,  showing  the  reasonableness  of 
faith.  Then  they  should  be  occasional,  rather 
than  systematic.  Let  no  man  take  a  careless  or 
contemptuous  attitude  towards  doubters  or 
those  whom  he  thinks  to  be  unsound.  There  are 
two  kinds  of  doubters:  those  whose  life  is  low, 
and  those  who  are  exceptionally  truthful  and 
earnest.  The  Arthur  Hallam  type  is  not  un- 
common in  this  critical  age.  It  is  a  gross  mis- 
take to  class  all  unbelievers  alike;  more  than 
this,  it  is  an  unpardonable  sin.  Some  of  the 
finest  souls  in  the  community  may  have  serious 
intellectual  difficulties.  They  doubt  because 
they  are  sensitive,  morbidly  so  perhaps,  because 
they  wish  to  know  all  sides  of  truth;  because 
they  would  not  make  their  judgment  blind. 
Such  lives  are  worth  winning.  Once  con- 
vinced of  truth,  they  are  loyal  to  it,  and  become 
the  strength  of  the  Church.  God  pity  us,  if  by 
our  harsh  treatment  we  make  it  impossible  for 
any  of  these  little  ones  to  believe.  Let  us  get 
the  Spirit  of  Christ  in  His  dealing  with  Thomas. 
When  the  minds  of  the  people  are  aroused  by  new 
discussion  of  Biblical  subjects,  if  we  touch  the 


322  Doctrinal  Preaching 

questions  at  all  in  the  pulpit,  we  should  do  so 
accurately,  without  exaggeration,  without  special 
pleading,  and  with  the  spirit  of  fairness  and 
charity.  Never  make  the  awful  mistake  of  rest- 
ing faith  on  any  false  or  artificial  condition.  If 
you  do  so,  you  will  make  more  atheists  than 
converts.  We  must  not  be  afraid  of  the  fullest 
examination  and  freest  discussion.  Oh,  for  a 
little  of  Milton's  faith,  ''Who  ever  knew  truth 
put  to  the  worse  in  a  free  and  open  encounter?" 

Take  the  matter  of  Biblical  criticism.  Will  it 
be  any  help  to  faith  for  a  minister  to  say,  "The 
Devil  was  the  first  higher  critic"?  "Revela- 
tion will  stand  after  criticism  has  done  its  ut- 
most; and  to  propagate  this  conviction  and  to 
deliver  the  Church  from  unreasoning  panic  is 
one  of  the  urgent  tasks  of  the  present  day 
apologetic."  —  Bruce,  "Apologetics." 

While  we  must  make  this  allowance  to  apolo- 
getics, their  use  in  the  pulpit  is  to  be  occasional, 
and  not  systematic.  It  is  a  mistake  to  make  the 
impression  that  truth  is  always  on  the  defensive. 
The  stock  story  of  Bishop  Bloomfield  of  London 
illustrates  the  danger  of  the  tendency.  "After 
all,  my  lord,  I  do  believe  there  be  a  God." 
said  a  verger;  "I  have  heard  you  faithfully  for 
five  and  twenty  years,  and  yet  I  am  a  believer 
still!" 

The  general  tone  of  the  pulpit  should  be 


Doctrinal  Preaching  323 

positive.  And  the  preaching  of  the  truth  will 
be  often  the  best  answer  to  error.  The  entrance 
of  the  light  will  drive  out  the  darkness.  Canon 
Liddon  of  St.  Paul's  was  a  noble  apologist,  as 
setting  forth  the  positive  truth,  as  the  antidote 
to  the  current  error.  Take  the  false  theories  in 
the  air  that  undermine  the  sense  of  responsibility, 
and  train  the  soul  to  ignore  and  then  deny  God. 
They  underlie  the  social  and  political  movements 
of  thought.  How  shall  we  meet  these  theories? 
The  best  way  is  to  teach  most  positively  the  moral 
and  religious  truths  that  are  imperilled.  We  are 
to  present  the  living  realities  of  the  Gospel; 
the  evidence  of  personal  experience;  the  power 
of  an  aggressive  Christianity.  One  of  the  best 
series  of  apologetic  sermons  was  a  course  on 
modern  missions,  by  Dr.  Tucker,  now  President 
of  Dartmouth  College.  The  Life  of  Faith,  the 
Conquest  of  the  Gospel,  are  most  convincing 
apologetics.  The  true  apologetic  must  be  per- 
meated with  the  evangelistic  spirit,  and  the 
ultimate  object  to  make  men  conscious  of  sin, 
and  lead  them  to  repentance  and  faith. 


XVI 
ETHICAL  SERMONS 


OUTLINE 

The  relation  of  the  Gospel  and  Ethics. 

The  New  Testament  emphasis  on  the  ethical  life. 

The  evil  of  the  separation  of  the  Gospel  and  ethics  in  pulpit 
teaching. 

The  age  demands  the  revival  of  ethical  preaching. 
What  shall  be  the  preaching  of  Ethics? 

Frequent  and  systematic. 

Christian  ethics. 

Biographical  sermons  often  the  best  way ;    truth  in  life. 
The  Ethics  of  Christ  must  be  interpreted  in  the  light  of  present 
conditions. 

There  must  be  (1)  a  growing  ethical  ideal;    (2)  a  growing 
ethical  passion. 
Suggested  Methods  of  Ethical  Teaching. 

Midweek  topics. 

Studies  and  discussions  in  men's  clubs. 

Pulpit  teaching. 
The  Spirit  of  Ethical  Teaching. 

Free  from  partisanship. 

Accurate  and  temperate  speech. 

Spiritual  values  exalted. 

The  education  of  the  conscience. 

The  effort  to  increase  good  will  among  men. 

The  conviction  that  God's  will  can  be  found  and  obeyed. 

References  : 

Brown.     "Social  Message  of  the  Modern  Pulpit." 
George  Adam   Smith.     "Modern  Criticism    and 
the   Preaching   of   the   Old    Testa- 
ment."    Lect.   7. 
Ambrose  Sheppard.       "The  Social  Teachings  of 

Christianity." 
Beecher.     "Yale  Lectures."     3d    Series.      Lect. 

7-11. 
McAfee.     "The  Mosaic  Law  in  Modern  Life." 
Bishop  Westcott.     "The  Incarnation  and  Com- 
mon Life." 
Wright.     "The  Sermon  on  the  Mount." 
Peabody.     "Jesus    Christ    and     the     Christian 
Character." 
326 


XVI 

ETHICAL   SERMONS 

The  Gospel  is  a  redemption,  and  not  an 
ethic.  Its  power  is  in  the  new  creation  and  the 
divine  impulse.  When  the  spiritual  side  of  the 
message  is  lost,  and  the  pulpit  becomes  a  chair 
of  moral  philosophy,  it  has  lost  its  peculiar 
power. 

Such  was  the  eighteenth  century  pulpit  in  Eng- 
land. There  was  a  lifeless  formalism  in  religion 
and  little  more  than  a  cold  Deism  in  the  pulpit. 
Blackstone,  the  great  law  commentator,  went 
from  pulpit  to  pulpit  in  London  and  heard  no 
more  Gospel  than  he  could  find  in  the  essays  of 
Cicero.  The  moral  life  of  the  nation  was  weak- 
ened with  the  loss  of  a  redemptive  Gospel. 
Even  Chesterfield  could  feel  its  moral  weak- 
ness. ''We  are  no  longer  a  nation,"  he  exclaims. 
And  it  was  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  of  Re- 
demption under  the  Wesleys,  the  grace  of  God 
able  to  save  from  the  uttermost  to  the  utter- 
most, that  purified  the  religious  life  of  the 
nation  and  awakened  the  moral  sense. 

The  purpose  of  redemption  is  a  right  life,  a 

327 


328  Ethical  Sermons 

godly  and  righteous  life,  right  with  God  and 
right  with  men,  a  life  of  spiritual  graces,  fitting 
the  children  of  God,  a  life  of  the  practical  fruits 
of  righteousness,  making  the  earth  an  Eden. 
And  a  right  life  is  the  rational  outcome  of  a  re- 
deemed life.  The  Gospel  is  profitable  for  the 
life  that  now  is.  Salvation  cannot  find  its  con- 
tent in  a  saved  soul,  nor  in  a  heaven  above. 
A  man  alone  is  no  man.  The  Christian  life  is 
wrought  out  through  all  the  relations  and  duties 
of  human  society.  Christ's  gift  of  eternal  life 
is  not  a  matter  of  time  and  place,  but  the 
qualities  of  character  that  are  deathless  as  the 
will  of  God.  We  are  to-day  in  our  Father's 
house.  Now  we  are  to  lead  the  life  of  sons.  The 
place  where  we  stand  has  as  much  of  God  as 
the  farthest  point  of  light.  The  motives  of  the 
Gospel  are  misread  and  misused  that  fail  to 
sweeten  and  purify  the  issues  of  life.  The  New 
Testament  places  emphasis  upon  the  ethical 
life.  Christ's  secret  of  a  happy  life  is  a  right 
life.  His  portrait  of  a  true  man  fills  out  the 
best  human  ideal  with  the  heavenly  light.  The 
beatitudes  are  the  enduring  qualities  of  earthly 
blessedness.  His  abundant  life  is  to  be  the 
"salt  of  the  earth,"  both  inspiring  and  preserv- 
ing the  virtues  of  man  and  society;  the  "light 
of  the  world,"  making  clear  and  giving  life  to  the 
truths  and  duties  of  man. 


Ethical  Sermons  329 

The  apostolic  word  dwells  with  plain  and 
homely  iteration  upon  the  present  duties  of 
life;  the  duties  of  husbands  and  wives,  parents 
and  children,  masters  and  servants,  friends  and 
neighbors  and  citizens.  Every  typical  sphere  of 
life  is  touched,  and  principles  laid  down  which 
are  the  germs  of  all  social  duty  and  progress. 
There  is  no  excuse  and  little  tolerance  for  the 
visionary  and  unreal.  The  Gospel  is  to  be  the 
dynamic  of  life,  or  it  is  no  Gospel.  It  follows 
life  to  the  least  fraction  of  a  gift  and  to  the 
detail  of  the  commonest  duty.  All  doctrine  is 
for  life.  Every  Epistle  has  its  practical  con- 
clusion. Every  heaven-born  truth  has  its  lowly 
home  on  the  earth. 

It  has  been  rightly  said  that  there  is  as  much 
ethics  in  the  New  Testament  as  theology.  They 
are  never  separated,  never  treated  as  distinct. 
Religion  is  to  be  practical,  and  ethics  to  be  spirit- 
ual. The  mind  of  Christ  was  to  go  about  doing 
good.  The  union  of  doctrine  and  life,  of  theol- 
ogy and  ethics,  has  not  always  been  seen  in  the 
work  of  the  pulpit  or  the  life  of  the  Church. 
The  high  doctrines  of  grace  have  sometimes  been 
proclaimed  by  the  pulpit,  over  against  morality, 
as  though  they  were  contradictions,  and  the 
moral  law  and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  treated 
as  though  lacking  in  spirituality. 

On  the  other  hand  the  redemptive  truths  have 


330  Ethical  Sermons 

been  minimized,  and  the  whole  duty  and  privilege 
of  man  found  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  as 
though  Christ  had  never  offered  the  prayer  in 
the  seventeenth  chapter  of  John,  or  promised 
the  guidance  of  the  Spirit  into  further  truth. 
In  the  early  Church  there  were  those  idly  gazing 
up  into  heaven,  neglectful  of  the  duty  at  their 
feet;  and  those  so  intent  on  ministry,  that, 
Martha-like,  they  forgot  to  choose  the  good 
part  of  feeding  the  soul.  In  every  age,  men 
have  said,  with  Peter  and  John  on  the  Mount 
of  Transfiguration,  "Let  us  build  three  Tab- 
ernacles." And  the  men  in  the  valley, 
apart  from  their  Master,  have  been  help- 
less and  faithless  in  the  presence  of  human 
need,  and  cried,  "Why  could  not  we  cast  it 
out?" 

The  present  age  demands  a  revival  of  moral 
preaching.  There  has  been  a  wide  loosening  of 
the  old  bonds  of  restraint  and  attachment. 
Coming  face  to  face  with  the  conceptions  of  many 
peoples,  there  has  been  the  wavering  of  the  old 
standards  of  conduct.  Unexampled  oppor- 
tunities of  gain  and  pleasure  have  swept  men 
away  from  the  simple  self-denying  morality 
of  the  Gospel  into  indifference  and  self-indul- 
gence. The  marriage  bond  is  less  sacred. 
Business  is  governed  by  a  merciless  competition. 
Politics  is  regarded  as  the  game  of  parties,  and 


Ethical  Sermons  331 

not  the  sphere  for  the  noblest  service  to  society. 
The  personal  morality  of  the  Church  differs  not 
so  much  from  the  morality  of  the  world.  And 
the  Christian  law  is  not  the  governing  factor 
in  business  and  the  State.  Christian  men  have 
not  hesitated  to  corner  the  market,  and  press 
the  weak  to  the  wall  by  combination,  and  grasp 
public  facilities  in  the  interest  of  private  gain, 
and  govern  national  policies  by  the  commercial 
greed  of  a  class.  Is  not  a  fearless  voice  needed 
to  search  the  conscience,  apply  the  ethics  of  the 
Gospel,  and  call  the  age  to  a  higher  standard  of 
values  and  of  conduct? 

And  what  shall  the  preaching  of  ethics  be? 
It  is  certain  that  it  must  be  frequent  and 
systematic,  not  occasional  and  incidental.  We 
cannot  take  it  for  granted  that  faith  will  be  ex- 
pressed in  appropriate  works.  Faith  is  a  germ 
that  must  grow  by  exercise  and  be  disciplined 
into  strength  and  beauty.  Men  must  be 
taught  Christian  duties,  and  that  the  most 
correct  belief  and  the  most  fervent  feeling  will 
not  avail,  without  a  life  that  tries  to  do  the  will 
of  Christ.  "Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me 
Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father 
that  is  in  heaven." 

It  must  be  Christian  ethics  that  are  preached. 
And  to  be  Christian  ethics  they  must  not  only 


332  Ethical  Sermons 

have  the  standard  of  the  Hfe  that  Christ  gives, 
but  ever  connected  in  their  motive  and  power 
with  the  Spirit  of  Christ.  Every  truth  must 
be  related  to  Hfe,  its  natural  and  necessary  con- 
duct clearly  drawn,  and  earnestly  enforced,  v  And 
then  the  common  duties  that  belong  to  the  re- 
lations of  men  in  practical  life  must  be  taught 
with  line  upon  line,  and  precept  upon  precept, 
with  personal  and  effective  illustration  and 
appeal  to  the  higher  elements  of  life.  Dr.  T.  T. 
Hunger's  sermons,  "On  the  Threshold,"  thus 
teach  young  men  and  young  women  the  Chris- 
tian conception  of  character.  Dr.  McAfee's 
"The  Old  Law  for  the  New  World"  shows  the 
perennial  power  and  fitness  of  the  moral  law  to 
the  life  of  men.  And  Dr.  Wright's  exposition 
of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  "The  Ideals  of  the 
Mount  for  the  Life  of  Men  on  the  Plain, "  shows 
that  Christ  holds  up  no  impossible  ideals,  but 
the  natural  and  necessary  traits  of  a  new  man 
and  a  redeemed  society.  These  are  examples  of 
sermons  on  personal  and  social  morality  spoken 
with  the  measure  and  accent  of  the  Gospel. 

Biography  makes  the  best  interpretation  of 
life,  and  gives  the  best  lessons  of  life.  "  We  shall 
teach  more  and  more  by  biography,"  said  Mrs. 
Humphrey  Ward  one  day  to  the  late  Professor 
Jowett  of  Oxford;  "first  by  the  life  of  Jesus, 
the  noblest  of  all  biography,  and  then  by  the 


Ethical  Sermons  333 

lives  of  other  good  men,  sages,  and  heroes,  and 
prophets."  And  the  biographical  sermon  is 
often  the  best  way  of  teaching  Christian  ethics. 
The  world  had  not  known  sin  save  by  Christ's 
holy  life,  and  vicarious  death,  that  condemned 
sin  in  the  flesh.  And  men  come  to  true  self- 
knowledge,  to  the  judgment  upon  evil  and  ap- 
proval of  good,  through  the  portrayal  of  life. 
The  subtle  and  complex  nature  of  temptation, 
the  growth  of  moral  forces  and  tendencies,  are 
traced  in  the  revelation  of  a  life.  And  Bible 
characters  hold  this  mirror  up  to  nature,  not 
only  from  their  truthfulness  to  nature,  but  be- 
cause they  are  so  removed  from  the  present  as 
to  be  ''timeless  and  passionless,"  teaching  truth 
free  from  the  mists  of  present  motives  and  con- 
troversies. 

No  man  who  reads  Robertson's  etchlike 
portrait  of  Balaam  can  ever  forget  the  per- 
version of  noble  gifts  by  avarice,  and  the  start- 
ling glimpse  of  a  heart  that  "  would  not  play 
false,  and  yet  would  wrongly  win."  "There  are 
men  who  would  not  lie,  and  yet  who  would 
bribe  a  poor  man  to  support  a  cause  which  he 
believes  in  his  soul  to  be  false.  There  are  men 
who  would  resent  at  the  sword's  point  the  charge 
of  dishonor,  who  would  yet,  for  selfish  gratifica- 
tion, entice  the  weak  into  sin,  and  damn  body 
and  soul  in  hell.     There  are  men  who  would  be 


334  Ethical  Sermons 

shocked  at  being  called  traitors,  who  in  time  of 
war  will  yet  make  a  fortune  by  selling  arms  to 
their  country's  foes.  There  are  men,  respectable 
and  respected,  who  give  liberally  and  support 
religious  societies,  and  go  to  church,  and  would 
not  take  God's  name  in  vain,  who  have  made 
wealth  in  some  trade  of  opium  or  spirits,  out  of 
the  wreck  of  innumerable  human  lives.  Balaam 
is  one  of  the  accursed  spirits  now,  but  he  did  no 
more  than  these  are  doing."  ^  And  Bishop 
Phillips  Brooks,  in  that  most  realistic  picture 
of  King  Saul,  the  wreck  of  a  noble  life  by  the 
spirit  of  selfishness  and  wilfulness,  gives  us  the 
principle  of  all  truly  ethical  preaching,  in  keep- 
ing life  in  the  presence  of  God,  in  bringing  every 
motive  and  step  to  the  bar  of  the  divine  will. 
The  standard  of  life  and  the  very  conception  of 
God  depends  upon  the  willingness  to  do  the  will 
of  God.  "Through  the  great  open  world  moves 
God,  like  a  strong  wind  or  spirit,  finding  out  all 
the  public  and  the  secret  places  of  the  life  of 
man.  In  the  breath  of  that  Spirit  we  are  all 
journeying;  no  one  can  escape  for  a  moment. 
But  while  your  brother  at  your  side  is  full  of  the 
sense  of  God's  love,  to  you  God  seems  the  hin- 
drance of  your  life;  His  righteousness  defeats 
your  plans.  His  purity  rebukes  your  lust,  His 
nature  and  being  smite  you  in  the  face,  like  a 
1  "Sermons,"  p.  661. 


Ethical  Sermons  335 

blast  that  blows  bitter  and  cold,  from  a  far-off 
judgment  day.  Does  God  hate  you  and  love 
your  brother  ?  No,  He  loves  you  both,  but  you 
with  your  disobedience  are  setting  yourself 
against  His  love.  You  must  turn  around.  You 
must  be  converted.  And  then,  when  your  will 
is  by  obedience  confederate  with  the  will  of  God, 
every  breath  of  His  presence  shall  be  your  joy 
and  salvation."  ^ 

It  must  be  said  further  that  ethical  preaching, 
to  be  a  living  message  of  God,  must  interpret 
the  ethics  of  Christ  in  the  light  of  present  con- 
ditions. There  must  be :  (1)  a  growing  ethical 
ideal;    and  (2)  a  growing  ethical  passion. 

First,  a  growing  ethical  ideal.  It  is  not 
enough  to  maintain  an  institutional  Christianity. 
Christianity  must  become  incorporated  in  the 
life  of  each  age.  It  is  not  enough  to  teach 
certain  rules  of  personal  conduct ;  the  principles 
of  life  must  be  unfolded  to  apply  to  new  con- 
ditions, finding  their  emphasis  in  the  life  of  the 
age.  In  an  age  of  individualism,  when  the  chief 
thought  was  individual  right  and  duty  and  lib- 
erty, the  emphasis  was  on  the  truths  of  individual 
character,  of  personal  morality.  The  ethical 
man  according  to  Christianity  was  the  man  of 
purity,  integrity,  sincerity,  and  kindness.  In 
a  social  age  like  ours,  with  a  growing  sense  of 
»  "Sermons,"  Vol.  IV,  p.  313. 


336  Ethical  Sermons 

humanity,  the  subtle  and  vital  relation  of  one 
life  to  another,  the  solidarity  of  human  life,  the 
ethical  conception  is  not  satisfied  with  personal 
moralities,  but  with  the  right  relation  of  men 
in  industry,  society,  and  the  State.  Temper- 
ance is  one  thing  to  our  fathers,  and  another 
thing  to  us,  with  the  scientific  knowledge  of  the 
effects  of  alcohol,  and  the  moral  strain  of  our 
complex  and  strenuous  life.  Justice  is  one 
thing  between  free  industrial  equals;  it  may  be 
another  thing  towards  masses  of  men  bound  and 
banded  together  by  common  necessities  and 
hopes.  Our  law  often  fails  to  express  the  new 
social  and  industrial  relation  of  men.  The 
right  to  work  in  one's  own  house  seems  a  sacred 
right,  and  it  has  been  decreed  a  right  by  the 
highest  courts  of  the  State.  And  yet  to  such 
decree  "is  directly  due  the  continuance  and 
growth  of  tenement  manufacture,  and  of  the 
sweating  system  in  the  United  States  and  its 
present  prevalence  in  New  York,  with  its  terrible 
consequences  of  overcrowding,  child  labor  in  the 
homes,  and  the  diseases  of  congested  and  pinched 
populations." 

Well  says  the  author  of  "Moral  Overstrain," 
concerning  the  failure  of  the  law  to  recognize 
the  new  social  relations  of  men:  "The  law 
embodies  an  outworn  philosophy,  the  old  laissez- 
faire  theory  of  extreme  individualism.  —  If  the 


Ethical  Sermons  337 

servant  was  dissatisfied  with  the  conditions  of 
his  employment;  if  the  dangers  created,  not 
merely  by  the  necessities  of  the  work,  but  by  the 
master's  indifference  to  the  safety  of  his  men, 
were  in  the  eyes  of  the  latter  too  great  to  be 
endured  with  prudence,  then,  being  under  this 
theory  of  a  'free  agent'  to  go  or  stay,  if  he  chose 
to  stay,  he  must  take  the  possible  consequences 
of  personal  injury  or  death.  This  freedom  is 
to  him,  not  hberty,  but  injustice."  ^  He  is 
free  to  accept  unjust  conditions  or  starve.  The 
conscience  of  man  must  be  awakened  and  trained 
to  a  finer  sense  of  its  social  relations  and  to  the 
obligation  that  comes  from  it.  The  conscience 
must  be  taught  and  trained  to  meet  the  new 
issues  of  life,  until  conscience  shall  be  the  king 
of  the  entire  sphere  of  modern  life. 

It  is  evident  that  conscience  has  not  kept  pace 
with  the  development  of  industry  and  society. 
The  Rev.  Dr.  Charles  D.  Williams,  the  Episcopal 
Bishop  of  Michigan,  in  an  address  on  the  "Final 
Test  of  Christianity,"  describes  the  too  common 
examples  of  "commercial  and  political  iniquity 
and  civic  unrighteousness,"  and  then  answers 
the  question,  Who  are  the  men  who  do  these 
things?  "They  are  often  gentlemen  who  are 
scrupulously  correct  in  their  personal  behavior. 
As  to  the  minor  morals,  they  are  temperate, 
'  Alger,  "Moral  Overstrain,"  p.  173. 


338  Ethical  Sermons 

sober,  and  chaste.  They  are  good  husbands, 
kind  fathers ;  their  home  Hfe  is  above  reproach. 
They  are  often  kind  and  considerate  neighbors. 
They  pay  their  debts,  and  fulfil  their  personal 
obligations  to  their  friends.  They  scorn  a  lie 
where  no  business  interest  is  at  stake.  They 
are  interested  actively  in  all  civic  improve- 
ments of  a  material  sort .  They  give  munificently 
to  all  movements  for  human  betterment  that 
do  not  interfere  with  their  commercial  schemes. 
They  found  hospitals,  schools,  and  social  settle- 
ments; they  build  libraries  and  universities. 
They  are  even  orthodox,  pious,  and  devoted  in 
their  religious  life.  They  go  to  church  regularly, 
teach  in  the  Sunday-school,  lead  in  prayer 
meeting,  support  the  pastor  (so  long  as  he 
preaches  smooth  things),  and  give  generously  to 
missions.  Now,  why  is  this  so?  What  is  the 
secret  of  this  strange  ethical  inconsistency,  this 
moral  contradiction?  It  seems  to  me  to  lie 
in  a  lack  of  moral  coordination,  a  divided  and 
disintegrated  conscience.  These  men  have  at- 
tained and  fulfilled  their  ideals  of  morality  in 
their  personal  conduct  and  relationship,  and  their 
technically  religious  life.  In  these  regions  they 
exercise  and  exhaust  their  conscience.  But  in 
their  commercial  relations  and  business  life 
they  have  no  standards  whatever.  Here  they 
are  morally  color-blind.     They  see  no   distinc- 


Ethical  Sermons  339 

tions  of  right  and  wrong.  They  are  for  the  most 
part  utterly  unconscious  of  the  flagrant  iniquity 
of  their  doings.  For  here  in  this  region  of  com- 
mercial life  the  writs  of  Christ  do  not  run.  Even 
common  conscience  and  the  moral  law  have 
no  jurisdiction.  'The  accepted  rules  of  the 
game'  are  a  sufficient  code  of  ethics.  There  is  a 
hopeless  cleavage,  a  bridgeless  gulf,  through  the 
midst  of  their  lives.  They  have  fulfilled  all  the 
reasonable  requirements  of  righteousness  here 
in  their  personal  conduct  and  religious  piety. 
They  are  therefore  free  to  do  as  they  like  in  this 
other  and  outer  region  of  their  existence.  They 
need  to  pray  the  prayer  of  the  Psalmist,  '  Unite 
my  heart  to  fear  Thy  name.'"  ^ 

It  is  true  that  Christian  men  have  never  met 
such  temptations  to  worldliness  as  in  this  western 
hemisphere. 

"The  homely  nurse  doth  all  she  can, 
To  make  her  foster-child,  her  inmate  man. 
Forget  the  glories  he  hath  known, 
And  that  imperial  palace,  whence  he  came." 

Never  were  there  such  opportunities  for  personal 
gain  and  power.  Never  have  the  horizons  and 
relations  of  men  shifted  and  widened  so  rapidly. 
And  if  Christian  men  often  stand  with  this 
"disintegrated  conscience,"  making  Christ  the 
^  McClure's  Magazine,  December,  1905. 


340  Ethical  Sermons 

"Lord  of  the  hills  but  not  of  the  valleys,"  is  it 
not  because  the  pulpit  has  somewhat  lacked  the 
prophet's  vision  and  the  prophet's  voice?  The 
prophets  were  interpreters  of  their  age.  They 
were  educators  of  the  personal  and  social  con- 
science. And  the  pulpit  has  this  perpetual 
function,  this  divine  privilege  and  duty,  to  in- 
terpret the  growing  life  of  man  and  make  Christ 
its  master. 

Is  it  true  (the  claims  of  an  earnest  preacher) 
that  "  applied  Christianity  has  been  our  theme"  ? 
Is  it  true  that  "never  before  have  so  many 
sermons  been  preached  on  the  ethical  truths  of 
Christianity,  and  never  before  has  life  been  so 
unchristian"?  Would  it  not  be  truer  to  say, 
that  the  pulpit  as  a  whole  has  not  caught  the 
social  message,  and  has  failed  to  make  the 
"new  occasions  teach  new  duties"?  The  ideal 
and  the  power  to  reach  it  are  inseparable.  A 
truer  ethical  ideal  would  give  birth  to  a  new 
ethical  passion.  That  such  a  singleness  of  pur- 
pose is  needed  in  the  Church,  born  of  a  nobler 
conception  of  social  relations,  is  the  conviction 
of  the  most  earnest  students  of  religious  life. 
Wherever  men  have  caught  the  vision  their 
hearts  have  been  stirred.  It  has  made  religion 
a  practical  reality,  and  faith  a  transforming 
and  impelling  power.  From  the  narrowness  of 
ecclesiastical  divisions  and  the  stifling  air  of  its 


Ethical  Sermons  341 

contests,  men  have  caught  ghmpses  of  the 
splendor  of  the  Kingdom  and  their  hearts  have 
beat  fast  in  the  freer  air  of  its  promise.  Even 
beyond  the  Church,  thousands  of  men  have 
breathed  the  Hfe-giving  spirit.  A  hundred 
years  ago,  the  choicest  of  our  youth  gave  them- 
selves with  a  heart  of  fire  to  the  evangelization 
of  great  heathen  peoples.  And  the  only  enthu- 
siasm to-day  comparable  with  that  of  these  early 
pioneers  of  foreign  missions,  is  the  passion  to 
minister  with  which  hundreds  of  the  choicest 
young  men  and  women  lose  themselves  in  the 
sin  and  want  and  misery  of  great  so-called 
Christian  cities.  The  highest  mark  and  hope  of 
our  day  is  the  nobler  manhood  slowly  coming 
from  the  social  conscience.  There  is  a  truer 
civic  conscience,  when  men  like  the  late  Col. 
Waring  will  forget  business  and  social  prefer- 
ment and  devote  their  energies  to  the  cleaning  of 
a  great  city,  making  it  a  fit  place  to  bring  up  the 
children  in,  in  some  faint  sense  a  city  of  God. 
There  is  a  finer  Christian  pity,  when  women  like 
Miss  Jane  Addams  do  not  consider  culture,  and 
wealth,  and  social  position  matters  to  be 
grasped  after  for  themselves,  but  give  their  lives, 
in  true  Messianic  entrance  into  the  heart  of 
sodden  and  hopeless  masses  of  pinched  and 
degraded  poverty. 
Wealth  is  for  use,   culture  is  for  ministry, 


342  Ethical  Sermons 

strength  is  to  lift  up  the  weak.  A  score  of 
educated  youth  to-day  are  trying  to  fulfil  the 
law  of  Christ  by  bearing  the  burdens  of  others, 
where  one  thought  of  these  social  duties  a  genera- 
tion ago.  It  is  the  moral  passion  born  of  a  fuller 
moral  ideal.  Such  ethical  preaching  would  have 
vital  relation  to  the  spiritual  progress  of  the 
Kingdom.  "Evangelism,"  says  Dr.  Rauschen- 
busch,  "  is  only  the  cutting  edge  of  the  Church, 
and  it  is  driven  by  the  weight  back  of  it.  The 
evangelizing  power  of  the  Church  depends  on  its 
moral  prestige  and  spiritual  authority.  To  be 
effective,  evangelism  must  hold  up  a  moral 
standard  so  high  above  the  actual  lives  of  men 
that  it  will  smite  them  with  conviction  of  sin."  * 
A  true  Christian  righteousness  would  give  the 
Church  its  needed  moral  prestige  and  the  pulpit 
its  spiritual  authority.  When  men  see  that  the 
Gospel  tends  to  right  existing  wrongs,  to  com- 
mand the  public  conscience,  to  lay  the  indus- 
trial world  under  the  law  of  love  to  one's  neighbor, 
to  fit  men  for  earth  as  well  as  for  heaven,  the 
time  of  our  salvation,  indeed,  draweth  nigh. 
And  a  new  moral  passion  born  of  this  larger 
moral  conception  would  bridge  gulfs  between 
classes  that  now  seem  impassable,  bring  men  now 
indifferent  to  the  Church,  or  alienated  from  it, 
under  the  power  of  a  personal  love,  and  open 
»  "  The  New  Evangelism." 


Ethical  Sermons  343 

a  thousand  doors  for  the  entrance  of  Christ  into 
modern  Hfe.  Faith  spreads  by  the  loving  touch 
of  a  vitahzed  person.  To  the  ethical  ideal 
through  the  social  consciousness  are  we  to  look 
for  the  moral  enthusiasm,  the  singleness  of 
devotion,  that  shall  bring  a  new  era  of  spiritual 
life  to  the  Church,  and  so  of  wider  conquest  for 
the  Kingdom  of  Christ. 

"The  pulpit  for  to-day  must  be  competent  to 
give  instruction  in  the  moral  laws  which  govern 
social  and  industrial  life  —  the  organized  life 
of  humanity.  The  age  requires  this  instruction ; 
the  people  desire  it;  the  ministers  should  give 
it.  If  the  minister  will  go  to  his  Book  for  this 
purpose,  he  will  find  it  quite  as  rich  in  sociological 
as  in  theological  instruction ;  quite  as  fertile  in 
its  suggestions  respecting  the  duty  of  man  to 
man,  as  in  its  suggestions  respecting  the  nature 
and  government  of  God."  ^ 

Some  Suggested  Methods  of  Ethical  Teaching. 
—  Some  practical  topic  of  social  ethics  might 
well  be  discussed  at  stated  intervals  in  the  mid- 
week meeting.  Questions  of  the  family,  edu- 
cation, amusements,  temperance,  labor,  civic 
reform,  the  immigrant,  the  State,  should  be 
carefully  considered  in  the  light  of  the  Gospel, 
and  have  the  earnest  thought  and  prayer  of 
Christian  men. 

*  Lyman  Abbott,  "The  Christian  Ministry,"  p.  164. 


344  Ethical  Sermons 

The  growth  of  men's  clubs  in  the  churches 
offers  a  special  opportunity  for  ethical  study  and 
teaching.  They  must  have  a  stronger  reason 
for  being  than  the  increase  of  an  evening  service 
or  the  support  of  a  local  cause.  There  must  be 
a  growing  conception  of  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
or  enthusiasm  will  be  short-lived.  Under  good 
leadership  men  will  eagerly  follow  such  studies 
as  Peabody's  "Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Prob- 
lem," Brooks'  "Social  Unrest,"  and  Gladden's 
"Tools  and  the  Man."  Occasional  addresses 
can  be  secured  from  special  workers  and  teachers. 
And  such  teaching  will  be  felt  at  last  in  a  stronger 
and  more  ethical  faith.  The  preacher  is  to  in- 
terpret the  divine  meaning  of  life,  to  make  men 
conscious  that  God  is  on  the  field,  when  to  the 
common  eye  He  is  most  invisible.  And  to  re- 
veal the  spiritual  significance  of  ethical  and 
social  movements  that  aim  at  human  better- 
ment, however  crude  and  imperfect  the  efforts, 
is  to  strengthen  faith  in  the  ever  present  Spirit 
of  God,  and  to  train  men  in  the  open  vision  and 
large  sympathies  that  make  them  co-workers 
with  the  divine  plan. 

The  ethical  teaching  of  the  pulpit  may  be 
largely  by  exposition.  The  great  principles 
of  the  Moral  Law  and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
should  be  unfolded  with  all  their  present  re- 
lations and  sanctions.     The  practical  precepts 


Ethical  Sermons  345 

of  the  Epistles  will  show  the  height  and  depth 
of  the  Gospel  law,  a  prophetic  book  like  Amos 
will  lay  bare  the  social  lies  of  men  and  the  living 
and  eternal  truths  of  justice  and  mercy;  and 
the  preacher  who  lives  in  his  age  and  under- 
stands the  meaning  of  its  forces  will  always  be  a 
teacher  of  ethics,  and  by  frequent  use  of  illus- 
tration and  application  will  give  the  social 
emphasis  to  his  message. 

The  Spirit  of  Ethical  Teaching.  —  The  truth 
should  be  spoken  in  love,  with  supreme  re- 
gard for  man,  not  for  theory.  Men  are  often 
in  the  stress  of  circumstances;  they  seem  a  part 
of  a  great  system;  they  cannot  do  as  they  like. 
No  man  is  guiltless.  We  are  all  involved  in 
the  sin  of  society;  the  blood  of  human  lives 
is  upon  many  things  we  eat  and  wear.  So  it 
becomes  the  preacher  of  ethics  to  look  well  to 
himself  and  consider  the  spirit  of  his  teaching. 

The  questions  of  ethics  should  never  be 
approached  in  the  partisan  spirit.  Men,  equally 
sincere,  may  differ  radically  about  the  applica- 
tion of  truth,  the  method  of  reform ;  and  if  the 
preacher  cannot  rise  above  the  din  and  dust  of 
parties,  he  had  better  be  silent.  His  work  is 
that  of  a  prophet,  to  reveal  and  insist  upon  a 
higher  righteousness. 

The  preacher  of  ethics  is  to  keep  the  calmness 
of  mind  that  sees  truly,  and  the  self-control 


346  Ethical  Sermons 

that  can  condemn  evil  without  railing  at  every 
evil-doer;  the  sympathy  that  puts  himself  in 
the  place  of  the  other  man,  and  the  faith  that 
believes  in  the  power  of  the  simple  statement 
of  truth.  Exaggeration  is  a  weakness  of  the 
American  pulpit.  It  is  often  the  excess  of 
earnestness  that  overreaches  the  mark,  the  sign 
of  an  ill-balanced  nature,  an  intemperate  zeal 
that  ahenates  the  very  lives  it  ought  to  win, 
and  inflames  antagonism  it  ought  to  allay. 
Accurate  and  temperate  speech,  always  the 
condition  of  spiritual  leadership,  is  especially 
needful  for  the  teaching  of  Christian  ethics. 

The  preacher  is  ever  to  exalt  spiritual  values 
above  the  material,  in  public  teaching,  daily 
speech,  and  social  relation  to  recognize  spiritual 
worth  and  honor  it,  free  from  the  artificial  dis- 
tinctions of  work  and  position.  The  spiritual 
motives  that  bind  all  men  to  God  and  to  each 
other  are  to  be  his  concern.  He  may  be  a 
socialist,  —  as  an  individual  he  has  a  right  to 
hold  any  theory  of  economic  and  political 
advance.  Whenever  such  methods  are  attempts 
to  embody  the  ethics  of  the  Gospel,  he  has  a 
right  to  proclaim  them.  But  as  a  priest  and 
prophet  of  religion,  he  misuses  his  great  trust 
if  he  preaches  an  economic  method  in  the  place 
of  spiritual  righteousness. 

For  the  preacher  does  the  most  by  keeping 


Ethical  Sermons  347 

conscience  sensitive.  All  personal  and  social 
advance  waits  upon  moral  and  spiritual  forces. 
"To  raise  up  men  who  have  the  fear  of  God 
before  them,"  to  use  the  famous  saying  of  Oliver 
Cromwell,  is  to  insure  the  victory  of  righteous- 
ness. The  best  the  pulpit  can  do  is  to  shape 
public  opinion  and  inspire  men  to  apply  their 
religious  faith  to  daily  life. 

It  is  also  the  mission  of  the  pulpit  to  increase 
the  spirit  of  good  will  among  men.  Here  lies 
the  hope  of  peaceful  progress.  Men  cannot 
understand  others  because  they  look  solely  at 
their  personal  or  class  interest.  To  teach 
Christ's  view  of  man  and  His  passion  for  the 
lowest  and  the  weakest  is  to  promote  the  spirit 
of  brotherly  love  and  increase  the  realm  of  per- 
sonal rectitude  and  social  justice. 

As  the  ethical  teacher,  the  pulpit  must  insist 
upon  the  spiritual  meaning  and  obligation  of 
all  life  and  relation  and  work.  Generous  giving 
cannot  atone  for  unjust  accumulation.  The 
whole  process  of  life  is  ethical;  nothing  can  be 
excepted,  nothing  can  escape.  We  must  insist 
that  all  life  is  to  be  religious,  and  in  all  things 
God's  will  can  be  found  and  obeyed.  "  It  would 
be  in  the  line  of  a  genuine  apostolic  succession  if 
some  of  you  should  come  to  be  enrolled  with  the 
pioneers  in  this  work  of  furnishing  moral  lead- 
ership for  the  social  struggle  which  is  to  have 


348  Ethical  Sermons 

so  large  a  place  in  the  life  to  which  you  will  be 
called  to  minister.  Your  predecessors,  the  Pu- 
ritan Pastors  of  New  England,  were  strong  in 
their  sense  of  the  new  social  order  which  was 
to  come  as  the  earthly  realization  of  the  King- 
dom of  God.  They  dreamed  of  a  genuine  theoc- 
racy, a  civil  order  in  which  the  reign  of  the 
divine  Spirit  would  be  complete.  However 
imperfect,  and  even  clumsy,  modern  criticism 
may  deem  some  of  their  attempts  to  establish 
their  social  ideals,  the  real  content  of  those  ideals, 
the  brave  conception  of  an  associated  life  which 
should  embody  and  express  the  will  and  purpose 
of  God  for  men,  was  possessed  of  high  and  lasting 
value.  And  it  will  add  a  hundred  fold  to  your 
own  usefulness  as  pastors,  if  you  too,  may,  in 
the  language  of  our  day,  hold  aloft  ideals  which 
shall  be  equally  commanding,  and  labor  for  their 
realization  with  the  same  splendid  zeal."  ^ 

^  Brown,  "The  Social  Message  of  the  Modern  Pulpit," 
p.  32. 


XVII 
THE   ETHICS   OF  PULPIT   SPEECH' 


OUTLINE 

The  Effect  of  the  Critical  Spirit  on  Pulpit  Speech. 
The  Relation  of  Ethics  to  Speech. 

The  moral  quality  of  words. 
The  Ethical  Demand  for  Truthfulness  to  the  Message. 

Reality  of  thought  expressed  in  reality  of  speech. 

The  vivid  concept  of  truth. 

The  fidelity  to  study  and  experience. 

Conscientious  clearness  of  style. 

Bible  truth  in  intelligible  speech. 

Illustrations  that  reveal  truth. 

Freedom  from  cant  phrases  of  religion. 

Disuse  of  technical  terms. 

Questions  of  style  and  the  power  of  the  pulpit. 
The  Ethical  Demand  for  Truthfulness  to  the  Person. 

Relation  of  the  word  to  the  preacher. 

True  speech  cannot  be  borrowed. 

The  patchwork  style  and  the  patchwork  sermon. 

Training  and  the  personal  style. 

The  personal  message  in  frankness  and  fulness. 

The  right  and  wrong  use  of  humor. 

The  moral  defect  of  the  sensational  pulpit. 
The  Ethical  Demand  for  Practical  Speech. 

The  unselfish  use  of  style. 

Plain  but  pure  speech. 

A  pure  conscience  and  a  pure  taste. 

References  : 

Phelps.     "English  Style  in  Public  Discourse." 

Phelps.     "Men  and  Books." 

Hill.     "Our  English." 

Hood.     "Lamps,  Pitchers,  and  Trumpets."   Lect. 

7-9. 
Johnson.     "The  Ideal  Ministry."     Lect.  23. 


350 


XVII 
THE    ETHICS   OF  PULPIT  SPEECH 

It  was  said  of  an  eminent  astronomer  of  our 
age  that  he  had  supreme  regard  for  a  fact.  And 
in  his  scorn  of  theories,  and  the  painstaking, 
persistent  search  for  truth  in  his  chosen  sphere, 
he  was  no  doubt  a  good  expression  of  the  age- 
spirit.  A  robust,  fearless  spirit  it  is,  with  too 
httle  reverence  for  the  past,  sometimes  per- 
mitting the  facts  of  the  senses  to  hide  the  facts 
of  the  spirit ;  but  asking  the  single  question  — 
What  is  truth  ?  —  willing  to  abide  by  it  and 
confident  of  its  victory.  This  spirit  may  be 
traced  immediately  to  the  influence  of  modern 
science ;  but  the  primary  cause  is  the  very  Spirit 
of  truth  preparing  again  the  way  of  the  Lord  in 
the  hearts  of  men. 

It  has  certainly  left  its  healthful  criticism  upon 
speech,  increasing  the  dignity,  responsibility, 
and  power  of  a  word.  It  wants  truth  first  and 
always,  better  perhaps  to  say  reality,  the  word 
to  stand  for  a  reality  of  thought  and  feeling, 

351 


352  The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech 

the  man  to  speak  just  as  he  thinks  and  as  he 
feels  the  truth.  This  is  the  ethical  quality  of 
pulpit  speech,  the  exact  correspondence  between 
the  outer  form  and  the  inner  reality. 

The  age  is  rightly  impatient  of  verbiage.  The 
demand  for  short  sermons  is  not  altogether 
the  sign  of  an  unsanctified  heart.  Brevity  is 
often  synonymous  with  directness.  And  men 
will  lose  the  limits  of  time  now,  as  they  have 
always  done,  under  the  charm  of  a  living  mes- 
sage. But  they  refuse  to  be  satisfied  with 
''words,  words,  words,"  when  they  ask  for 
truth. 

The  critical  spirit  is  the  unwilling  ally  of  the 
pulpit.  We  may  well  rejoice  that  it  pricks  the 
rhetorical  windbag,  that  it  humbles  the  empty 
vanities  of  style.  It  helps  to  separate  the  pre- 
cious from  the  vile  that  the  mouth  may  be  more 
as  the  Lord's  mouth.  As  far  as  words  corre- 
spond to  the  truth,  the  man,  and  the  needs  of  the 
human  heart,  have  they  the  moral  equality. 
The  ethics  of  pulpit  speech  then  demand  that 
the  speech  be  truthful,  personal,  and  practical. 

Reality,  truthfulness,  is  the  prime  quality  of 
ethical  speech.  It  is  the  moral  force  of  the 
pulpit  as  of  all  speech.  Two  college  presidents 
were  discussing  before  an  audience  of  teachers 
certain  conditions  of  college  entrance.  One 
used  his  subtle  charm  of  speech  to  confuse  the 


The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech  353 

issue,  to  puzzle  the  minds  and  postpone  action. 
The  other,  from  a  thorough  study  of  the  ques- 
tions and  a  strong  conviction  of  the  best  way, 
spoke  with  a  simple  directness  that  revealed  and 
convinced.  The  one  was  a  politician,  playing 
with  words  to  win  the  game.  The  other  was  a 
truth-seeker  and  truth-speaker,  making  his 
words  luminous  with  reality. 

A  real  message,  a  living  message,  must  find 
its  voice  in  pulpit  speech.  Words  must  give  the 
"measure,  the  quality,  the  power,  and  the  life" 
of  the  truth  they  would  teach.  A  sincere  mind 
that  reaches  clear  views  of  truth  will  always 
aim  to  speak  the  truth.  Thought  is  the  vital 
fashioner  of  style,  crystalline  and  virile,  or  hazy 
and  nerveless,  as  the  thought  is  so. 

Reality  of  thought  then  is  the  important  ques- 
tion for  any  one  who  would  be  a  spiritual  teacher 
of  men.  How  can  the  mind  get  a  vivid  concept 
of  the  message  of  Christ?  Men  say.  Pray  for 
the  illumination  of  the  Spirit,  surrender  fully 
and  be  filled  with  the  Spirit,  give  up  vain  search 
and  give  yourselves  to  Christian  duty,  and  you 
shall  know.  Each  piece  of  advice,  good  and 
necessary  as  it  is,  by  itself  alone  hardly  meets 
the  case;  and  is  too  often  used  as  a  cheap  and 
easy  substitute  for  that  which  requires  an 
arduous  and  protracted  mental  and  spiritual 
discipline.     To  know  the  truth  of  God  demands 

2a 


354  The  'Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech 

the  strenuous  exercise  of  the  mental  powers. 
No  hasty  skimming  of  books  and  papers,  no 
dilettante  idling  over  polite  literature,  will  lodge 
God's  thoughts  in  the  mind  in  their  vitalizing 
reality.  We  must  work  our  way  at  whatever 
personal  cost  into  the  life  of  the  writers  of 
Scripture.  The  new  exegesis  is  making  the 
Bible  a  living  book.  It  is  the  spirit  of  thorough- 
ness that  pushes  every  word  to  its  roots  and 
relations,  compelling  it  to  yield  its  utmost  sug- 
gestiveness;  it  is  the  spirit  of  humility  that  is 
willing  to  subject  every  opinion  to  the  white 
light  of  the  Word;  it  is  the  spirit  of  a  Pauline 
ambition,  not  counting  itself  to  have  attained, 
but  ever,  with  unveiled  face,  welcoming  truth 
from  every  source  and  expecting  larger  visions 
of  truth.  It  is  the  spirit  of  loyalty  ''to  every 
fact,  to  every  teaching  of  the  Word,  to  every 
lesson  of  providence,  to  every  precept  of  the 
Spirit."  Truth  is  not  known,  —  it  does  not  yet 
lie  in  the  mind  as  a  living  reality,  —  until  the 
will  yields  its  glad  assent,  and  the  emotions 
thrill  their  response  to  the  claim  of  its  sover- 
eignty and  beauty. 

It  is  one  thing  to  know  the  divinity  of  our 
Lord  as  a  theological  dogma,  to  be  able  even  to 
marshal  in  logical  and  forceful  array  the  accepted 
argument  for  the  doctrine.  It  is  another  and 
higher  truth  to  have  seen  the  glory  of  Christ 


The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech  355 

flash  from  the  pages  of  the  Word,  or  gleam  in 
the  holy  place  of  prayer,  and  in  that  light  to 
know  the  depth  of  need  and  the  glory  of  life 
and  out  of  that  dual  experience  to  gain  the 
strength  of  faith.  There  was  the  deepest  and 
strongest  exercise  of  the  entire  spiritual  man  in 
the  passionate  cry  of  Charles  Kingsley,  "I  can- 
not, I  cannot  live  without  the  man  Christ 
Jesus." 

The  man  who  forms  his  concepts  of  Divine 
truth  through  such  mental  and  spiritual  sin- 
cerity will  carry  his  sensitiveness  and  honesty 
into  every  word  that  he  uses  in  public  teaching. 
He  will  have  some  sense  of  the  imperfect  medium 
of  language  —  how  that  the  most  transparent 
words  cannot  tell  all  that  is  in  a  man's  heart. 
And  so  nothing  that  can  be  removed  will  be 
suffered  to  dim  the  meaning  of  his  thought. 
The  man  who  has  worked  his  own  way  to  the 
meaning  of  truth  understands  some  of  the 
hindrances  to  its  reception  on  the  part  of  other 
men,  their  misconceptions,  prejudices,  dislikes, 
prepossessions  —  the  whole  environment  of  years 
of  life  that  determine  what  a  man  shall  see. 
And  so  the  true  preacher  will  try  to  find  accept- 
able words,  words  that  are  the  nearest  kin  to  the 
hearers,  that  break  through  the  crust  of  mental 
and  spiritual  habit  and  find  the  heart  and 
conscience. 


356  The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech 

Bible  phrases  need  often  to  be  put  into  present 
speech.  The  "Twentieth  Century  New  Testa- 
ment" is  an  attempt  in  this  direction.  Some 
men  think  that  the  quoting  of  Scripture  is  laying 
the  very  power  of  the  Spirit  upon  human  hearts. 
So  their  speech  is  a  Bible  mosaic.  Nothing  is 
better  than  an  apt  use  of  Scripture.  Such 
quotations  as  those  of  Alexander  Maclaren  of 
Manchester  are  sudden  gleams  of  truth,  or  blows 
that  clinch  the  argument,  or  strokes  that  lay 
open  the  very  secrets  of  life.  They  are  never 
inapt  or  commonplace;  they  are  the  work  of  a 
true  exegete,  who  uses  his  critical  knowledge  to 
lighten  or  strengthen.  But  too  many  men  use 
Scripture  in  a  magical  fashion,  either  out  of 
reverence  for  the  very  language  of  inspiration 
or  as  a  pious  cloak  for  their  mental  poverty. 

Bible  words  and  phrases  are  often  truer  to  the 
original  tongues  than  to  our  own;  they  have 
something  of  an  oriental  atmosphere;  they  are 
colored  by  the  life  of  a  strange  people.  In  so 
far  as  this  is  true,  they  may  have  the  effect  of 
a  far-away  message,  even  something  of  unreality. 
Therefore  the  thought  of  the  Bible  must  be 
clothed  in  the  speech  of  present  life.  And  does 
not  Bible  language,  from  our  very  familiarity 
with  it,  sometimes  fail  to  give  distinct  and  vivid 
impression ;  fail  to  arrest  the  thought  and  stimu- 
late interest  and  inquiry  ?    The  old  truths  need 


The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech  357 

to  be  poured  into  the  moulds  of  present  use. 
The  hfe  must  find  its  way  into  forms  nearest 
and  quickest  to  the  thought  and  sensibihty  of 
living  men. 

How  many  illustrations  of  the  pulpit  must  be 
called  darkeners,  not  revealers,  of  spiritual 
truth  !  They  are  ingenious  rather  than  natural, 
artificial  not  striking,  sensational,  serving  them- 
selves more  than  the  truth.  Or  the  illustrations 
are  so  trite,  —  analogies  of  nature,  stories  of 
personal  experience,  extracts  from  homiletical 
handbooks,  —  that  they  are  a  threadbare  tex- 
ture, a  faded  drapery,  or  a  window  soiled  and 
scratched  and  cracked  by  long  and  careless  use. 

A  busy  minister  of  a  great  church  joined  the 
class  of  a  biological  laboratory  that  he  might 
get  the  new  symbolism  and  illustrations  by  which 
so  many  men  were  newly  expressing  the  facts 
of  life.  "  If  this  ignominious  tale  be  founded  on 
fact,"  says  Dr.  Watson  concerning  the  reported 
pepper-caster  of  illustrations  with  which  some 
ministers  flavor  their  sermons,  "and  be  not  a 
scandal  of  the  enemy,  then  the  Protestant 
Church  ought  also  to  have  an  Index  Expurga- 
torius,  and  its  central  authorities  insert  therein 
books  which  it  is  inexpedient  for  ministers  to 
possess.  In  this  class  should  be  included  'The 
Garland  of  Quotations'  and  'The  Reservoir  of 
Illustrations/  and  it  might  be  well  if  the  chief 


358  The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech 

of  this  important  department  should  also  give 
notice  at  fixed  times  that  such  and  such  anec- 
dotes, having  been  worn  threadbare,  are  now 
withdrawn  from  circulation.  The  cost  of  this 
office  would  be  cheerfully  defrayed  by  the 
laity." 

This  does  not  mean  that  the  commonplace 
and  familiar  are  to  be  avoided.  The  simplicity 
of  illustration  will  depend  largely  on  its  familiar- 
ity. The  man  who  is  ever  striving  after  the 
unusual  violates  the  first  law  of  simplicity, 
"much  within  and  little  without,"  and  is  not 
pure  and  true  in  his  style.  All  of  Christ's 
illustrations  are  of  simple  things,  but  He  gave 
them  immortal  value  by  the  high  truth  that  He 
put  into  them. 

To  overdo  illustration  is  ethically  as  bad  as  to 
use  artificial  ones.  "Some  sermons,"  says  Dr. 
Garvie,  "consist  of  very  many  big  but  often 
cheap  beads  of  illustration  and  quotation,  kept 
together  by  a  very  thin  thread  of  thought, 
sometimes  by  little  more  than  the  repetition  of 
the  text.  Sunsets  and  waterfalls  and  flowers 
and  birds  are  not  necessary  to  every  sermon; 
still  less  should  descriptions  of  scenery  form 
the  greater  part  of  the  sermon.  A  man  who 
professes  to  be  delivering  a  message  which  is 
either  a  savour  of  life  unto  life  or  of  death  unto 
death  to  his  hearers  should  have  neither  the 


The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech  359 

time  nor  the  taste  for  such  elegant  and  super- 
ficial trifling.  Preaching  is  not  art  or  poetry, 
although  it  may  use  both.  Admiration  of 
nature  in  it  should  be  swallowed  up  in  adoration 
of  God.  The  man  in  whom  the  Word  of  the 
Lord  burns  will  never  make  merely  a  picture  or 
a  poem  out  of  his  sermon."  * 

The  most  unreal  uses  of  speech  by  the  pulpit 
are  the  cant  phrases  of  religion.  How  the  moral 
sense  has  been  offended  by  the  glib  and  trite  use 
of  such  great  phrases  as  ''Coming  to  Jesus"  and 
"Saving  the  Soul  "  !  Expressions  of  this  class 
rarely  convey  the  great  realities  once  connected 
with  them.  They  have  been  so  long,  often 
thoughtlessly,  used,  that  they  have  become  loose 
and  effusive  terms  of  religious  sentimentalism, 
meaning  anything  that  the  mind  of  the  hearer 
may  interpret.  They  lack  definiteness  and  ex- 
actness and  so  truthfulness.  They  are  not  the 
symbols  of  clear  thinking  and  so  fail  of  clear 
impression.  Truth  is  unchangeable;  but  from 
the  nature  of  man  there  must  be  change,  growth, 
in  the  conception  of  truth  and  so  of  its  symbols. 
It  is  inevitable,  then,  that  forms  once  types  of 
the  loftiest  conceptions  and  charged  with  emo- 
tion should  become  so  common  as  to  lose  their 
reality,  —  stereotyped  and  soulless  forms,  the 
cant  speech  of   religion.     There  is   a  natural 

'  Garvie,  "Guide  to  Preachers,"  p.  235. 


360  The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech 

impatience  at  words  and  phrases  "exhausted  by 
overuse."  No  form  of  words,  however  signifi- 
cant, is  free  from  this  law  of  change.  We  may 
be  thankful  that  the  revisers  have  taken  one  of 
these  phrases  out  of  our  English  Bible  and  given 
us  a  new  form  of  words,  adequate  to  the  truth 
that  religion  is  coterminous  and  synonymous 
with  a  man's  whole  life.  "For  what  doth  it 
profit  a  man  to  gain  the  whole  world  and  forfeit 
his  life?" 

And  for  the  same  reason  reality  demands  the 
disuse  of  technical  terms  of  theology  in  the  pulpit. 
Some  words  the  Gospel  has  created  and  these 
are  necessary  to  accuracy  and  fulness  of  thought, 
and  so  must  be  retained  in  pulpit  speech.  But 
there  are  many  others,  not  found  in  the  Scrip- 
tures or  rarely  found,  that  are  creations  of 
theological  and  philosophical  contests,  having 
no  vital  connection  with  the  Gospel  and  in  no 
sense  a  present  expression  of  it.  John  Foster 
well  calls  them  "a  kind  of  Popery  of  language, 
requiring  everything  to  be  marked  with  the 
signs  of  the  holy  church."  There  has  been  an 
improvement  since  Foster's  day  in  the  purity 
of  pulpit  English.  There  are  more  men  now 
who  are  in  the  pulpit  what  they  are  out  of  it, 
and  out  of  the  pulpit  what  they  are  in  it.  But 
there  is  still  the  tendency  to  speak  religious 
truth  in  a  dialect  which  should  be  essentially 


The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech  361 

spiritual  and  so  far  unserviceable  for  any  other 
subject.  Such  speech  gives  the  Gospel  the  air 
of  a  professional  thing,  and  so  far  is  untrue  to 
the  measure  and  spirit  of  its  message.  When  you 
begin  to  speak  of  the  subjective  and  the  objec- 
tive, —  you  are  not  speaking  to  the  popular 
mind.  The  mere  technicalities  of  theology  are 
for  treatises  of  theology  and  for  the  study ;  but 
in  the  pulpit  let  the  preacher  deal  with  living 
men  and  women  in  words  that  are  closest  to 
their  daily  experience. 

In  his  introduction  to  ''Straight  Sermons" 
or  "Sermons  to  Young  Men,"  Dr.  Henry  van 
Dyke  voices  the  purpose  of  reality.  "No  think- 
ing minister  can  stand  up  before  a  company 
largely  composed  of  young  men  without  a 
strong  wish  to  be  plain-spoken  and  to  come 
straight  to  the  point.  They  have  a  fine  im- 
patience of  all  mere  formalities  and  roundabout 
modes  of  speech,  which  acts  as  a  moral  tonic  to 
brace  the  mind  from  vagueness  and  cleanse  the 
tongue  from  cant.  They  want  a  man  to  say 
what  he  means.  The  influence  of  this  unspoken 
demand  is  wholesome  and  inspiring,  and  the 
preacher  ought  to  show  his  gratitude  for  it  by 
honestly  endeavoring  to  meet  it.  For  this  reason 
I  have  tried  to  write  these  sermons  not  in  a  theo- 
logical dialect,  but  in  the  English  language." 

This    is    not    a   factitious   discussion   of  the 


362  The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech 

hindrances  to  reality  of  expression.  Let  the 
preacher  fail  of  mental  thoroughness,  alertness, 
vividness,  sensitiveness,  and  his  speech  will  be 
made  of  the  commonplaces  of  phrase,  quota- 
tion, and  illustration.  Then  let  this  verbal  un- 
reality be  spoken  with  an  unreal  elocution  (the 
two  are  almost  inseparable,  the  expression  of  the 
same  nature),  the  voice  of  a  "holy  tone,"  rising 
and  falling  in  regular  cadence,  and  the  hearer 
may  well  say  with  Tennyson's  "Northern 
Farmer  " : 

"An'  'eard  um  a  bummin'  awaay  loike  a  buzzard-clock 

ower  my  yead, 
An'  I  niver  knaw'd  whot  a  mean'd  but  I  thowt  a  'ad 

summut  to  saay, 
An'  I  thowt  a  said  whot  a   owt  to  'a  said,  an'  I 

coomed  awaay." 

These  questions  of  style  are  more  than  matters 
of  taste  and  individuality.  It  is  right  to  lift 
them  into  the  sphere  of  ethics.  They  have  to 
do  with  the  influence  of  the  pulpit  and  with  a 
man's  right  to  stand  in  the  pulpit.  Unreality  of 
speech  is  dishonesty  of  speech.  Old  words  lose 
their  significance.  The  national  mind  grows. 
Epochs  in  life  and  theology  give  birth  to  new 
ideas.  Language,  too,  must  grow  to  express 
the  larger  life.  The  man  who  by  mental  in- 
dolence or  the  backward  look  fails  to  live  in 
his  generation  cannot  be  God's  voice  to  them. 


The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech  363 

Charles  G.  Finney  did  not  speak  a  religious 
dialect.  He  threw  away  the  terminology  with 
which  a  false  philosophy  had  hidden  the  truth, 
and  spoke  directly  to  the  conscience  and  com- 
mon sense  of  men  in  words  and  images  present 
and  real  and  so  throbbing  with  the  power  of 
divine  life. 

The  example  of  Mr.  Finney  naturally  suggests 
the  fact  that  preaching  is  in  no  sense  an  im- 
personal matter.  Truth  must  not  only  have  a 
reality  in  speech,  —  the  words  give,  as  far  as 
it  may  be  possible  for  words  to  give,  "the 
measure,  the  spirit,  and  the  power  of  the  truth," 
• —  that  truth  must  be  through  a  personality. 
The  personal  form  will  be  a  vital  part  of  its 
reality.  The  very  philosophy  of  preaching  de- 
mands this;  there  can  be  no  true  preaching 
without  it.  How  is  it  that  the  highest  power 
of  a  word  is  inseparable  from  its  sound?  "The 
Essays  of  Emerson,"  said  Mr.  Alcott,  "were 
never  truly  understood  until  he  had  spoken 
them."  There  is  life  in  the  spoken  word  not 
found  in  the  written.  Through  the  spoken 
word  does  the  speaker  breathe  his  own  life  into 
the  souls  of  his  hearers.  Therefore  the  man  is 
inseparable  from  the  message;  his  personal  ex- 
perience apprehends  and  colors  it ;  his  character 
illustrates  and  enforces  it.  The  thinking,  the 
emotions,  the  experiences,  —  the  life,  personal. 


364  The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech 

peculiar,  individual,  —  must  show  itself  in  the 
speech  of  a  living  man. 

Such  speech  cannot  be  borrowed.  No  lan- 
guage of  others,  however  appropriate  and  beau- 
tiful, can  satisfy  the  ethics  of  the  true  preacher. 
It  is  not  simply  the  question  of  plagiarism  in  its 
ordinary  sense,  getting  the  credit  that  belongs 
to  another ;  it  is  primarily  the  question  of  being 
true  to  one's  self.  The  words  of  others  are  not 
truly  your  words.  ''The  style  is  the  man." 
You  must  speak  your  own  message  and  not 
another's.  The  voice  will  not  be  Jacob's  and 
the  garments  Esau's.  Needless  quotation  is  only 
vain  pedantry.  The  marshalling  of  names 
and  learned  instances  are  marks  of  shallow 
scholarship.  They  are  accretions  and  not 
growths.  They  cover  the  true  man;  they  clog 
his  utterance;  they  are  alien  to  the  conception 
of  preaching.  Authorities  are  to  be  cited  and 
quotations  used  only  to  strengthen  the  position 
held  or  add  needed  light  and  splendor  to  the 
truth. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  style  will  be 
a  patchwork  if  the  sermon  is  so  constructed. 
The  true  sermon  is  a  growth,  not  a  manufacture. 
And  the  average  audience  feels  the  difference 
between  the  sermon  that  is  the  voice  of  the 
deepest  life  of  the  man  and  the  one  that  is  put 
together  out  of  commentaries  and  handbooks 


The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech  365 

of  illustration,  to  meet  the  Sunday's  appoint- 
ment. As  teachers  of  the  Gospel  are  we  not 
under  moral  bonds  to  give  the  truth  its  most 
effective  form  ?  Are  we  not  to  form  our  habits 
of  work  so  that  the  truth  may  have  time  to 
grow  into  vivid  conceptions  and  quicken  the 
emotions,  —  taking  a  deep  hold  of  the  entire 
mental  and  moral  nature,  —  so  that  we  shall 
speak,  the  entire  man  and  not  another,  so  that 
the  sermon  shall  be  a  living  word  of  God? 

We  must  feel  the  need  of  the  best  training, 
and  training  that  shall  continue  as  long  as  life 
lasts,  if  the  speech  is  to  be  ever  personal  and 
yet  varying  as  the  phases  of  truth  and  its  appli- 
cation to  the  natures  of  men.  Cultivation, 
familiar  converse  with  great  thinkers  and  the 
masters  of  English  style,  will  not  destroy  indi- 
viduality, but  free  it,  lead  it  out  into  fuller  and 
more  facile  exercise.  Such  minds  must  speak 
the  message  God  gives  in  their  own  way.  They 
cannot  be  imitators,  and  yet  they  are  more 
versatile,  more  many-sided,  in  their  style,  fitted 
to  the  varying  phases  of  truth,  and  individual 
in  them  all. 

Here  is  where  the  man  of  narrow  culture  and 
small  literary  furnishing  shows  his  limit.  He 
keeps  a  rigid  individuality  in  his  speech,  often 
more  prominent  than  the  truth  expressed;  or 
he  uses  the  manner  of  others  without  the  power 


366  The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech 

of  assimilation,  changing  with  the  copy  Hke  the 
unformed  hand  of  the  schoolboy. 

The  preacher  is  called  upon  to  speak  the 
message  of  God  in  confident  frankness  and  ful- 
ness. The  true  influence  of  the  pulpit  demands 
this.  A  reputation  for  undue  reserve,  for  policy 
and  expediency,  is  fatal  to  leadership.  Men  love 
to  be  trusted,  and  they  open  their  hearts  to  the 
teacher  who  speaks  directly  and  without  dis- 
guise. It  is  true  that  half-formed  ideas  should 
be  voiceless,  that  the  "spectres  of  the  mind" 
should  be  laid  in  silence,  that  though  the  range 
of  teaching  be  greatly  narrowed,  its  accent 
should  be  that  of  humble  certitude.  But  there 
should  be  no  timid  withholding  of  the  personal 
expression  of  the  truth.  Let  every  man  give  the 
best  truth  he  has,  in  the  best  and  fullest  way  he 
has.  All  ways  of  euphemistic  circumlocution 
are  essentially  dishonest.  If  you  wish  to  realize 
how  a  man  who  lacks  truth  in  the  inner  part 
instinctively  hides  himself  behind  his  speech, 
study  Shakespeare's  delineation  of  the  King  in 
''Hamlet."  Few  can  resist  the  charm  of  the 
man  who  speaks  with  simple  and  honest  direct- 
ness, who  gives  himself  in  his  speech  with  costly 
self-exhaustion.  Such  fountains  are  quickly 
filled  again  from  the  upper  springs. 

But  is  there  no  limit  to  this  personal  expression 
in  speech  ?    There  certainly  is,  and  not  hard  to 


The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech  367 

find.  The  moment  that  the  personal  element 
fails  to  exalt  and  impress  the  truth,  that  mo- 
ment the  limit  of  its  rightful  expression  has  been 
reached. 

It  is  the  danger  of  humor  in  the  pulpit.  In  no 
sense  is  this  a  plea  for  any  undue  seriousness. 
The  mock  gravity  "that  merely  hides  with 
solemn  front  the  lack  of  thought  and  feeling" 
is  worthy  of  the  satire  it  has  received.  But  is 
it  not  time  for  the  clerical  jester  to  receive  with 
the  clerical  prig  the  contempt  he  deserves? 
The  man  who  has  no  sense  of  humor  is  to  be 
pitied;  he  lacks  the  sense  of  proportion;  he 
may  lack  richness  of  nature  and  gentleness  and 
sensitiveness.  It  is  a  most  helpful  quality  to 
the  pulpit,  keeping  it  from  extravagance  and 
bitterness.  Laughter  may  not  be  wrong  in  the 
church.  "There  is  a  smile,"  to  use  the  words 
of  Bishop  Brooks,  "which  sweeps  across  a  great 
congregation  like  the  breath  of  a  May  morning, 
making  it  fruitful  for  whatever  good  thing  may 
be  sowed  in  it,  and  another  laughter  that  is  like 
the  crackling  of  thorns  under  a  pot."  But  have 
we  not  seen  the  clerical  jester  lay  his  defiling 
touch  upon  the  most  sacred  things  ?  The  most 
impressive  occasion,  the  opportunity  for  the 
holiest  influence,  has  been  thrown  away  by  the 
funny  story  or  the  inconvenient  jest.  Deliver 
the  Church  from  the  man  who  cannot  control 


368  The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech 

and  sanctify  his  humor !  Does  it  make  the  pun 
any  the  less  vicious  for  a  famous  clergyman  to 
say  that  even  Jonah  had  to  be  whaled  to  take  the 
path  of  duty  ?  The  trouble  with  the  funny  man 
in  the  pulpit,  the  clerical  jester,  is  that  the  wit 
is  an  end,  not  a  means.  It  is  indulged  and  en- 
joyed as  a  play,  and  not  kept  conducive  to  the 
softening  and  winning  of  the  heart.  It  is  an 
undue  expression  of  personal  taste  and  eccen- 
tric display,  and  not  the  natural  expression  of 
a  consecrated  manhood.  And  in  this  spirit 
humor  in  pulpit  speech  becomes  essentially 
immoral. 

And  the  same  charge  can  be  drawn  against  the 
sensational  pulpit  and  for  the  same  reason.  The 
evil  of  sensationalism  is  in  the  undue  expression 
of  the  man ;  it  puts  the  man  before  the  message. 
It  has  been  wittily  said  that  the  difference  be- 
tween an  advertiser  and  a  sensational  preacher 
was  that  the  first  advertised  his  wares  and  the 
second  advertised  himself.  It  may  fill  the 
church  and  trumpet  the  preacher's  name  by 
the  lips  of  thousands,  but  that  may  not  work 
for  righteousness  and  establish  the  kingdom  of 
spiritual  life.  "  You  may  lose  your  fortune  and 
gain  another;  you  may  lose  your  wife  and  win 
another;  but  if  you  lose  your  soul,  good-by, 
John,"  was  the  way  a  certain  noted  preacher  of 
our  day  tried  to  express  the  value  of  the  soul. 


The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech  369 

It  certainly  made  a  sensation.  But  did  it  open 
the  heavens  and  let  light  upon  the  immortal 
nature  of  man?  It  did  not  make  a  silence  in 
the  soul  for  God  to  speak.  People  thought  it  a 
smart  saying,  and  enjoyed  the  audacity  of  it, 
as  they  would  the  keen  and  not  too  reverent 
wit  of  Life  or  any  well-known  society  paper. 

No  doubt  we  have  too  much  conservative 
dulness.  We  must  catch  the  ears  of  the  people. 
The  pulpit  must  add  vivacity  to  spirituality. 
But  is  there  any  message  of  God,  any  word  for 
the  restless,  unsatisfied  heart  of  humanity,  in 
"Yea,  and  its  Variation,"  "Gnawed  Mangers," 
"  Impossible  Balloons,"  and  "The  Willing  Hat "  ? 
The  truth  is,  such  expressions  are  never  sug- 
gestive and  attractive  forms  of  truth,  too  often 
but  the  voice  of  a  vain  and  shallow  nature.  A 
flippant  sensationalism  can  only  deaden  the 
true  hunger  of  the  soul,  dissipate  earnest  thought 
by  its  irreverence,  and  in  the  end  prove  a  feeble 
rival  to  the  comic  opera  and  the  variety  theatre. 

The  personal  element  in  pulpit  speech  must  be 
true  to  a  sincere,  reverent,  consecrated  man- 
hood. Such  personality  God's  word  seeks  for 
its  expression. 

The  ethics  of  pulpit  speech  go  beyond  the 
message  and  the  preacher;  they  demand  of 
words  more  than  the  setting  forth  of  a  reality 
and  a  personality.     The  personal  knowledge  of 

2b 


370  The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech 

divine  truth  must  be  so  spoken  that  men  shall 
catch  the  preacher's  vision  and  feel  the  preacher's 
passion.  The  bond  of  a  common  experience,  a 
common  sympathy,  must  be  felt  in  the  words. 
The  audience  must  ever  be  in  the  mind  of  the 
preacher.     The  speech  must  be  practical. 

Some  preachers  seem  more  anxious  for  the 
salvation  of  the  sermon  than  for  the  salvation 
of  the  hearer.  The  sermon  at  times  has  the  air 
of  the  study,  the  flavor  of  philosophy,  poetry, 
history,  the  favorite  literature.  It  may  satisfy 
the  aesthetic  sense,  but  is  not  spoken  in  the 
language  that  men  use  in  practical  matters. 
Style  is  a  relative  matter;  but  the  need  of  the 
audience  must  be  consulted  as  well  as  the 
literary  taste  and  ideal  of  the  speaker.  There 
is  far  more  preaching  over  the  heads  of  the 
audience  than  men  suppose.  It  is  true  that  the 
people  should  be  made  to  think,  the  sermons 
cannot  be  too  thoughtful;  the  pulpit  should  be 
rescued  from  the  weakness  of  sentimentalism 
by  virile,  intellectual  preaching;  but  the  great- 
est truths  can  be  clothed  in  ways  intelligible  to 
common  men,  and  this  the  very  purpose  of 
preaching  demands.  A^nd  this  should  be  done 
even  at  the  cost  of  some  cherished  literary  ideals. 
A  literary  style  in  the  pulpit,  born  of  the  study 
and  not  of  the  daily  walks  of  men,  is  cold  and 
exclusive;   it  is  defective   morally,    it  shows  a 


The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech  371 

lack  of  moral  intensity,  it  does  not  pulse  with 
the  love  that  strives  to  save.  You  will  find  this 
entry  in  the  diary  of  Dr.  Chalmers :  "I  feel  that 
I  do  not  come  close  enough  to  the  heart  and  the 
experience  of  my  people.  I  begin  to  think  that 
the  phraseology  of  the  old  writers  must  be  given 
up  for  one  more  accommodated  to  the  present 
age."  And  Thomas  Arnold  has  given  us  a  true 
hint  when  he  says  in  a  preface  to  a  volume  of 
sermons,  —  "I  have  tried  to  write  in  such  a  style 
as  might  be  used  in  real  life,  in  serious  conversa- 
tion with  our  friends."  The  preacher  is  more 
than  an  artist,  delighting  in  self-expression. 
The  art-view  of  the  sermon  is  fitted  to  the  club- 
view  of  the  Church:  "A  very  pleasant  song  of 
one  that  hath  a  pleasant  voice."  It  does  not 
break  the  bonds  of  the  oppressor,  or  melt  cold 
hearts  into  Godward  emotion.  The  finest  cul- 
ture, the  most  finished  style,  may  be  nothing 
compared  to  the  simple,  rough  speech  inspired 
of  the  Spirit  and  voicing  great  thoughts. 

Plain,  direct  speech,  intelligible  to  men,  may 
come,  ought  to  come,  from  the  pure  wells  of 
English  undefiled.  If  it  is  not  pure  speech,  it 
cannot  be  moral  in  the  highest  sense.  How  can 
we  degrade  our  sacred  tongue  by  slang  and 
vulgar  colloquialism  in  the  pulpit !  How  can  we 
defile  its  crystal  streams  with  the  foul  waters  of 
careless  speech !    Let  us  never  speak  half  the 


372  The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech 

language  of  Ashdod  and  half  of  Canaan,  but  be 
of  pure  English  lip. 

The  sermon  should  be  the  speech  of  life,  but 
worthy  of  the  message  of  life  and  the  souls  of 
men.  Wendell  Phillips  described  speaking  as 
"animated  conversation,"  and  only  the  added 
word  dignified  is  needed  for  preaching.  The 
Gospel  cannot  be  helped  by  slang  and  the 
slovenly  language  of  the  street.  Yellow  journal- 
ism is  not  moralized  by  adoption  in  the  pulpit. 
Even  the  man  of  the  street  will  not  respect  such 
language  from  the  advocate  of  the  new  life. 
It  is  a  familiarity  that  argues  contempt  and 
surely  breeds  it.  It  is  essentially  unethical;  it 
does  not  adorn  the  doctrine  of  Christ. 

If  we  reverence  the  message  Christ  has  given 
us,  reverence  the  souls  of  men  committed  to  our 
charge,  reverence  ourselves,  —  earthen  vessels, 
but  intrusted  with  the  heavenly  treasure,  — 
then  we  shall  be  kept  from  all  pomposity  and 
vulgarity  and  have  that  earnest  simplicity  of 
speech  that  shall  make  our  preaching  a  living 
word  of  God. 

And  in  seeking  simplicity  of  pulpit  speech  for 
the  sake  of  reaching  men,  it  must  not  be  for- 
gotten that  it  is  the  element  of  strength,  and  as 
Mr.  Charles  Dudley  Warner  has  finely  said,  the 
element  of  immortality  in  literature.  It  goes 
beneath  the  surface  of  style  and  takes  hold  of 


The  Ethics  of  Pulpit  Speech  373 

the  grace  of  humility.  The  art  of  preaching, 
Hke  all  other  true  arts,  is  simple  and  chaste. 
"To  be  much  within  and  little  without,  to  do 
all  for  truth,  nothing  for  show,  and  to  express 
the  largest  possible  meaning  with  the  least  pos- 
sible stress  of  expression,  —  this  is  its  law." 

It  will  help  us  to  build  after  the  ''pattern  in 
the  Mount,"  if  we  make  a  lifelong  study  of 
1/^  words,  words  in  the  best  books  and  words  in  the 
daily  intercourse  with  men;  if  we  make  a  life- 
long study  of  style,  the  expression  of  the  finest 
literature  and  the  methods  of  common  men. 
Then  we  must  diligently  keep  out  of  the  ruts  of 
theological  thought  and  speech,  not  only  by 
the  spirit  that  takes  us  into  the  haunts  of  men, 
but  into  other  fields  of  study  aerating  the  mind 
and  giving  fresh  forms  of  thought.  As  has 
already  been  suggested,  conscience  has  some- 
thing to  do  with  taste.  Speech  has  its  best 
promise  and  safeguard  in  the  growth  of  the 
spiritual  life.  A  pure  conscience  will  coincide 
with  a  pure  taste.  Then  the  "yea  of  the  tongue 
will  express  the  full  and  mighty  affirmative  of 
the  entire  man,  nothing  more,  nothing  less; 
then  the  spoken  nay  will  utter  the  absolute, 
emphatic  protest  of  mind,  heart,  and  conscience, 
nothing  more,  nothing  less;  then  the  voice  of 
man  sounds  forth  as  the  very  trumpet  of  God." 


INDEX 


Abbott,  Ljonan,  definition  of 
authority,  166;  the  social 
instruction  of  the  pulpit,  343. 

Acts  iv..  Expository  plan,  296. 

Age,  religious  thought  and  life 
of  the,  102;  the  message  of 
the,    191. 

Alger,  G.  W.,  failure  of  law  to 
recognize  new  social  rela- 
tions, 336. 

Amos,  a  list  of  sermon  topics 
on,  107. 

Apologetics,  definition  of,  317; 
examples  of,  317;  urgent 
need  of,   319. 

Apologist,  how  shall  the 
preacher  do  the  work  of  the, 
320;  Canon  Liddon  as  an, 
323. 

Asceticism,  and  the  spiritual 
life,  117. 

Atonement,  place  of  the,  in 
preaching,  227;  four  ele- 
ments of  the,  to  be  preached, 
229. 

Augustine,  the  message  of,  198. 

Authority,  definition  of,  166; 
relation  of,  to  experience, 
182;  relation  between  inner 
and  outer,   186. 


Balaam,   Robertson's  portrait 
of,  333. 


Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  the 
satire  of,  128;  health  and 
work,  46 ;  relation  of  health 
to  spiritual  vision,  49;  on 
the  "thrust  power"  of  the 
voice,  53;  variety  of  topics 
in  expository  preaching, 
291. 

Bible,  systematic  knowledge 
of,  100;  devotional  study 
of,    146. 

Boynton,  Dr.  Nehemiah,  sug- 
gestions as  to  books  and 
reading,  103. 

Brooks,  Phillips,  suggestions 
on  method,  108;  the  mes- 
sage of,  199;  on  the  value 
of  the  soul,  277;  on  ex- 
pository   preaching,    303. 

Brown,  Charles  R.,  concern- 
ing the  housing  of  work- 
ingmen,  243 ;  the  minister 
as  a  social  teacher,   347. 

Brown,  Dr.  John,  quotation 
from    "Spare    Hours,"    60. 

Browning,  Robert,  quotation 
from  Prologue  to  Asolando, 
36. 


Chalmers,  Thomas,  the  secu- 
larizing influence  of  rou- 
tine, 140. 

Channing,  William  E.,  denial 
of  the  physical  life,  43;  the 
message  of,  199. 


376 


376 


Index 


Cheerfulness  and  gravity,  ele- 
ments of  a  spiritual  preacher, 
129. 

Christ,  the  personal  method 
of,  8;  relation  of,  to  the 
Bible,  195;  to  nature  and 
life,  196. 

Church,  Dean,  cultivation  of 
the   spiritual   life,    146. 

Clement,  the  message  of, 
198. 

Coe,  Geo.  A.,  religious  states 
and  the  nervous  system,  48 ; 
effect  of  joy  on  the  physical 
life,  52. 

Courage,  the  necessary  quality 
of  the  preacher,   16. 

Culture,  scholarly,  relation  of, 
to  character,  71 ;  and  sin- 
cerity, 71 ;  and  humility, 
74 ;  and  balance,  75 ;  re- 
lation of,  to  preaching,  77; 
to  the  ideal  of  the  sermon, 
77;  and  the  instructive 
sermon,  79;  the  choice  of 
subjects,  80;  the  growth 
of  the  sermon,  81;  the 
style  of  the  sermon,  82. 

D 

Dale,  R.  W.,  preaching  and 
the  religious  affections, 
141;  the  truth  of  the 
Living  Christ,  197;  defi- 
nition of  expository  preach- 
ing,   285. 

Doctrine,  present  tendency  to 
ignore,  307;  the  difficulty 
of  teaching,  309;  the  loss 
of,  in  preaching,  311;  the 
preaching  of,  essential,  312; 
what  should  mark  the 
preaching  of,  313. 

Dykes,  Dr.  J.  Oswald,  the 
union  of  the  personal  and 
social    message,    241. 


E 


Earnestness,  moral,  the  neces- 
sary quaUty  of  the  preacher, 
15. 

Ethics,  the  effect  of  reducing 
the  Gospel  to,  327;  the 
place  of,  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, 329 ;  present  demand 
for  the  preaching  of,  330; 
what  shall  be  the  preaching 
of,  331 ;  the  biographical 
sermon  and  the  teaching  of, 
332 ;  methods  for  the  pulpit 
teaching  of,  343 ;  the  true 
spirit  for  the  teaching  of, 
345. 

Evangelism,  the  truths  to 
be  preached  in,  268 ;  weak- 
ness of  a  passing,  271. 

Evangelist,  the  preacher  as 
an,   264;  office  of  the,  271. 

Experience,  and  the  author- 
ity of  the  message,   179. 


F 


Faith,  sincere,  the  necessary 
quality  of  the  preacher,  14; 
its  place  in  the  Gospel 
message,  231. 

Father,  the  righteous,  the 
revelation  of  Christ,  215. 

Fear,  the  appeal  to,  in  preach- 
ing, 275. 

Feeling,  the  wrong  emphasis 
upon,  218. 

Finney,  Charles  G.,  style  of, 
363. 

Foss,  Bishop,  on  the  preach- 
ing needed,  79. 


Garvie,  A.  E.,  the  evil  of  too 
many  illustrations  in  preach- 
ing, 358. 


Index 


377 


Gilder,  R.  A.,  "The  Song  of  a 
Heathen,"  14. 

God,  the  righteous,  the  revela- 
tion of  the  Old  Testament, 
214. 

God,  the  person  and  presence 
of,  best  taught  through 
Christ,  224. 

H 

Harrison,     Frederic,     on     the 
power    of    Christianity    for 
the    social    Ufe,    252. 
Hawthorne,    Nathaniel,    rela- 
tion of  the  heart  to  reality 
of  thought,  33 ;  true  method 
of  appeal,  302. 
Health,  natural  leadership  of, 
48;      relation    to     personal 
influence,    46;     the    attrac- 
tion of,  47 ;   and  sane  teach- 
ing, 48 ;    and  the  best  work, 
51. 
Hodge,  Dr.  Caspar,  the  spirit 

of  humanity,  75. 

Hopefulness,       a       necessary 

quality  of  the  preacher,  17. 

Hoppin,      the      influence      of 

culture     on     the    preacher, 

77. 

Humility,    the    quahty    of    a 

spiritual  preacher,    127. 
Humor,  the  good  and  evil  of, 

in  the  pulpit,  367. 
Huntington,     Bishop    F.     D., 
on  unselfishness  in  the  min- 
istry, 125. 


Ideal,      a      growing      ethical, 

335. 
Illustrations,  the  wrong  use  of, 

357. 
Ingelow,  Jean,  quotation  from 

"Brothers  and  a  Sermon," 

34. 


Intellectual  work,  breadth  of, 
demanded  of  the  pulpit, 
70. 

Isaiah  xxxv.  3-10,  Expository 
plan,  357. 


Jefferson,  Charles  E.,  the 
physical  strain  of  pubhc 
speaking,  54. 

John  xvi.  12-15,  Expository 
plan,  297. 

Johnson,  E.  H.,  power  of 
meditation,  149;  Christian 
labor  and  the  highest  life, 
152. 

K 

King,  "Rational  Living," 
breadth  of  interests  and 
influence,  34,  84;  effect  of 
insights    unobeyed,     140. 

Kingdom,  Christ's  teaching 
concerning  the,   254. 

Kingsley,  Charles,  the  sacred- 
ness  of  the  earth  and  human 
life,  119;  quotation  from 
the  "Wild  Fowl,"  133; 
description  of  the  preach- 
ing of  Augustine,   181. 

KipHng,  quotation  from,  160. 


Life,  the  aim  of  the  Gospel 
message,  210;  Christ's  por- 
trait of  in  the  Beatitudes, 
216. 

Life,  Higher,  doctrine  of, 
155. 

Life,  the  future,  not  the 
emphasis  of  the  Gospel 
message,  218. 

Life,  eternal,  Christ's  teach- 
ing of,  219. 

Liturgy  and  the  Message,  192. 


378 


Index 


Love,     John's     definition     of 

life,  212. 
Luther,  the  message  of,  199. 

M 

Mabie,  H.  W.,  the  character 
of  meditation,  151. 

Maclaren,  Alexander,  the  plans 
of,  299. 

Man,  the  full  truth  of,  best 
taught   by   Jesus,    225. 

Mathews,  Prof.  Shailer,  on 
the  social  teaching  of  the 
Church,  256. 

Matthew  V.  1-12,  xiii.  1-9,  \iii. 
5-13,  Expository  plans, 
294-5. 

Maurice,  F.  D.,  the  danger  of 
playing   with   words,    142. 

Mazzini,  Joseph,  on  the  au- 
thority of  Jesus  as  a  social 
teacher,    252. 

McConnell,  Dr.  S.  D.,  the 
temper  of  the   age,    194. 

McGlynn,  Dr.,  concerning  mis- 
sion preaching,   268. 

Message,  simplicity  of  the,  in 
Christ,  200 ;  comprehen- 
siveness of  the,  201,  203; 
the  social,  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, 248;  of  the  New 
Testament,  250. 

Messenger,  use  of,  in  New 
Testament,  8. 

Method,  need  of,  for  the 
minister's  growth,  92;  a 
hindrance  to,  in  the  minis- 
ter's peculiar  circumstances, 
93;  power  gained  by,  96; 
moral  elevation  of,  98; 
danger  of,  99;  subjects 
to  be  covered  by,  200;  in 
the  study,  a  help  to  method 
in  teaching,  104;  exposi- 
tory, suggestions  as  to, 
299. 


Mill,  John  Stuart,  compari- 
son of  Christian  ethics  with 
pagan,    252. 

Milman,  Dean,  method  of,  98. 

Monasticism,  and  its  influence 
on  the   physical   life,   42. 

Moore,  Dr.  Geo.  F.,  on  the 
larger  interpretation  of 
Scripture,    101. 

Motives,  the  appeal  to,  in 
preaching,  262. 

Mysticism,  and  the  spiritual 
life,  114;  the  danger  and 
weakness  of,   115. 

N 

Nicoll,  Dr.  Robertson,  the 
work  of  untutored  men,  67. 


Organization  and  the  message, 
191. 


Parkhurst,  Charles  H.,  on 
habit    in    prayer,    148. 

Passion,    a   new   ethical,    340. 

Patience,  the  quality  of  a 
spiritual  preacher,   132. 

Penalty,  escape  from,  a  partial 
Gospel   message,   216. 

Perfection,  the  doctrine  of 
sinless,    155. 

Person,  the  Gospel  of  a,  and 
the  need  of  our  age,  209. 

Personality,  special  value  of, 
in  preaching,  4;  impor- 
tance of,  shown  in  the 
history  of  preaching,  1 1 ; 
the  nature  of,  27;  the  limi- 
tation of,  24 ;  Christian 
faith  implies  the  growth  of, 
28;  to  be  enriched  in 
spiritual  wisdom,  29;  in 
human    sympathy,    32. 


Index 


379 


Peters,  Dr.  C.  H.  F.,  a  story 
of  the  stars,   134. 

Phelps,  Austin,  true  theory 
of  ministerial  culture,  85; 
the  mission  of  comfort,  50. 

Philippians,  a  list  of  sermon 
topics   on,    107. 

Pietism  and  the  spiritual  life, 
116. 

Plagiarism,  the  ethics  of,  364. 

Play,  the  law  of,  in  the  physi- 
cal life,  58. 

Powers,  Hiram,  story  of, 
36. 

Prayer,   habit  of  daily,    147. 

Preaching,  reason  for  the  per- 
petuity of,  5;  positive  and 
constructive,  235 ;  two 
views  of,  263;  what  is  ex- 
pository, 285. 

Prophets,  the  nature  of  their 
teaching,  170;  the  modern, 
and  their  message,  198; 
social  message  of  the,  250. 

R 

Rainsford,  W.  S.,  the  preacher 
for  the  times,   19. 

Rauschenbusch,  Prof.  Walter, 
on  the  "New  Evangehsm," 
342. 

Reality,  the  prime  quality  of 
ethical  speech,  352;  the 
mental  and  spiritual  con- 
ditions for,  353 ;  relation  of 
Bible   quotations   to,    356. 

Reconciliation,  Paul's  expres- 
sion of  the  Gospel  message, 
212. 

Religion,  cant  phrases  of,  359. 

Resurrection,  place  of  the,  in 
preaching,  234. 

Righteousness,  the  Old  Testa- 
ment word  for  life,   214. 

Robertson,  F.  W.,  comment 
on   Elijah's   dejection,    45. 


Salvation,  definition  of,  239; 
two   views  of,   263. 

Saul,  Phillips  Brooks'  realistic 
picture  of,   334. 

Scotchmen,  influence  of,  and 
an    educated    pulpit,    68. 

Sensationalism,  the  evil  of, 
in  the   pulpit,   368. 

Sensibility,  spiritual,  138;  the 
dulling  of,  139;  concerning 
sin,  143. 

Sermons,  expository,  the  need 
of,  283;  objections  to,  283; 
two  features  of,  286;  ad- 
vantages of,  287. 

Sheppard,  Ambrose,  the  social 
conditions  of  the  city,  242. 

Simeon,  Charles,  words  con- 
cerning exercise,  41. 

Simplicity,  the  highest  art  of 
pulpit  speech,  372. 

Simpson,  Bishop,  on  the  suc- 
cession of  noble  preachers,  13. 

Sin,  a  more  present  interpre- 
tation   of,    269. 

Sincerity,  the  quality  of  a 
spiritual  preacher,  122. 

Spenser,  Edmund,  quotation 
from  the  "Faerie  Queene," 
16. 

Spirit,  The  Holy,  for  power, 
156 ;  as  a  part  of  the  Gospel 
message,  233. 

Spirituality,  a  definition  of, 
120;     influence   of,    159. 

Stalker,  Dr.  James,  pursuit  of 
special  studies,  80. 

Style,  personal  element  in, 
363;  influence  of  a  disci- 
plined, 365 ;  limit  to  the  per- 
sonal elements  of,  366 ;  rela- 
tion of  conscience  to,  373; 
the  moral  purpose  in,  370. 

S3anpathy,  a  necessary  quality 
of  the  preacher,    16. 


3S0 


Index 


Swing,       David,       concerning 
faith  in  men,  131. 


Taylor,  Dr.  A.  M.,  the  variety 

of  motives  that  bring  men 

to  Christ,  273;  definition  of 

expository    preaching,    285  ; 

the   rich   materials  through 

expository  preaching,  292. 
Teacher,  the  preacher  as  a,  281. 
Tennyson,    Alfred,    quotation 

from     "The     Poet,"      173; 

"The     Northern     Farmer," 

362. 
Theology,  technical  terms  of, 

in   the   pulpit,   360. 
Trollope,  Anthony,  the  method 

of,  97. 
Truth,  use  of,  in  the  Gospel  of 

John,  7. 
Tucker,     Pres.     W.     J.,     the 

unmaking    process    in    the 

preacher,  96. 


Unselfishness,    the   quality   of 
a  spiritual   preacher,    123. 


Van  Dyke,  Dr.  Henrj'-,  sim- 
plicity in  pulpit  speech,  361. 

W 

Ward,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Phelps, 
temptations  to  vanity  in  the 
preacher,  127. 

Warner,  Mr.  Charles  Dudley, 
the  extent  of  the  minister's 
work,  89. 

Watson,  Dr.  John,  quo- 
tation from  Kate  Car- 
negie, 152;  the  use  of 
handbooks  of  illustration, 
357. 

Wesley,  John,  the  demand 
upon  the  preacher,  90;  the 
message  of,  199;  on  Gospel 
sermons,  204. 

Williams,  Bishop  C.  D.,  the 
"disintegrated  conscience," 
337. 

Witness,  use  of,  in  the  New 
Testament,  10. 

Wordsworth,  William,  "The 
Tables  Turned,"  59. 

WorldUness,  Robertson's  defi- 
nition of,  213. 


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